Watership Down: Thing's Happen for a Reason
by fivers11
Summary: With war come closer and closer to the Down, hope is fading for Hazel and his small band. Lucky for them Lord Firth has given them a second chance with Fiver's discovery of a beautiful doe named Molly. Yet before she can truly help Watership Down, she must unlock her true past with many heartbreaks ahead. Editor: Keeralie Starflight. Characters based off of the series.
1. Chapter 1: Secret's

It had been a couple of days since the first Efrafan patrol was spotted near the orchard, yet the patrol trailed off to a different direction from the Down, so there was no need to worry about them discovering their true location.

Morning came over the Down, when a small, reddish-brown rabbit hopped over to the edge of the Down, and sat on the damp grass, just staring off in the distance, thinking. Soon Fiver's thoughts were interrupted by the approaching steps.

"Hello Fiver. You're up early," Hazel greeted his younger brother, quietly sitting down next to him.

"Hello Hazel. I was just thinking about something," replied Fiver sadly, turning his head towards Hazel.

"Is something the matter, Fiver?" replied Hazel, noticing the sadness in his little brother's voice.

Fiver stayed silent.

"You know you can tell me anything, Fiver, I am your older brother, you know."

"I know Hazel, but you will think it's stupid," replied Fiver. Knowing he was going to break into tears, he turning his head away from Hazel.

"Fiver, I won't think it's stupid, just tell me," replied Hazel, turning to his brother.

"Well Hazel it's just that...that…that…" Fiver paused.

"That I don't have a mate!" Fiver said with incredible speed.

"Everyone else has a mate, you and Primrose, Blackberry and Campion, Hawkbit and Clover and then there's me, but why should i be surprised, all i am is a runt, a useless runt."

"Fiver…"

"Hazel, where have you been?!" grumbled an irritated Bigwig."Remember, Hazel, you still have the meeting on the Orchard? It's going to start in a few minutes. What are you doing out here anyway?"

"Bigwig can you please leave us be? I am talking with Fiver right now," replied Hazel.

"What are you talking about," replied Bigwig as he sat next to Hazel. "Did some sort of vision happen, or something a lot worse?"

"No, Bigwig, it's a personal issue," replied Hazel, getting a bit of annoyed by his presence.

"Come on Hazel, you can tell me."

"No, Bigwig, it's not for me to tell yo…"

Hazel was cut off as his younger brother sprinted back inside the warren.

"Fiver, wait!"

But he was already gone.

"Bigwig, you Embleer buffoon!" replied Hazel angrily.

Still concerned for his younger brother, he started to run after him.

In the distance Hazel could still hear Bigwig's shouting.

"What did I say? You still have that me…"

But that soon was cut off from the growing noise inside the Honeycomb.

As he entered the Honeycomb, he saw his kits Mallow, Snowdrop and Gilia playing tail tag with Pipkin. It seemed Pipkin was it.

Hawkbit, Dandelion, and Strawberry were up to their old tricks again. The trio was standing on the high rock in the center, which was used for meetings. They were all ready to pounce on Captain Holly when he wandered too close, as if they were cats ready to pounce on an unsuspecting prey.

Primrose, Clover, and Blackberry were talking to each other, most likely about their mates or when they were planning to have kits.

Yet none of that really concerned Hazel at the moment. Right now he was looking for Fiver. As he went to go check his own burrow, since sometimes, when he was upset, Fiver usually hid in there, his pursuit soon came to an end when Hawkbit, Dandelion, and Strawberry came by with a very mad Holly, who was right on the trail of the trio.

Hazel sighed, knowing he would have to go and stop Holly from ripping their tails off when he caught them.

"I hope you are all right, Fiver," Hazel thought and then soon went after the captain and the three pranksters.

Fiver was lying in his own burrow, crying and thinking. How could any doe love him, since the truth he was just a runt? Even his own siblings and father hated him.

He wasn't strong like Bigwig, smart like Hazel, or funny Like Dandelion and Hawkbit. All he is a runt, with the power to see into the future and even then everyone pronounced him as a freak.

As he laid his head down on the soft grass that served as a bed, darkness shrouded him...

Soon he found himself running through a dark forest, with an Efrafan patrol right on him, and Captain Vervain leading the chase. As he ran, he was confronted with two choices, to go left or right, both looked like a way.

So he decided to go down the right pathway, but to his shock it only led to a large stone wall, so he was trapped between the stone and the Efrafan patrol.

Fiver turned around to face his pursuers. The next thing he saw was Vervain, launching himself at him, claws extended to kill the little rabbit.

The next thing Fiver knew, he was screaming and panting, now wide awake. But to his relief, Hazel walked in and started to comfort him.

"Fiver, what is it, what's wrong, little brother?" Hazel asked as he squeezed him, reassuring his little brother that he was safe now.

Fiver buried his head into Hazel's chest and began to cry, but also, he felt some relief, just knowing he was back home and safe with his older brother.

Soon he lifted his head out and was about to speak, but now he was frozen in fear, right behind Hazel, was Woundwort ready to kill them both.

The next thing Fiver saw was Hazel, on the ground...dying, his neck was spilling blood from the three claw marks across his newly opened throat.

Soon Fiver found himself awake, soaking in his sweat.

"So it was all just a terrible nightmare." Fiver thought. Yet, somehow, it seems the trouble had not stopped.

"Fiver." He looked up, but to his shock no one was there.

"Hmm, that's strange. I could have sworn I heard someone calling me." Fiver thought.

"Fiver." He heard it again... so he wasn't imagining it, someone was calling him.

So Fiver got up from his warm bed and looked outside his burrow. He looked to his left, and then to the right, but to his shock there was no one.

"Fiver."

There it was again. It sounded an awful lot like a doe, but the does he knew didn't sound quite like that. Soon his curiosity got the better of him, and he set off towards the voice.

As he wandered through the warren, he soon found himself in the Honeycomb. It seemed that the meeting was taking place. Hazel was found on the large stone, used for meetings and the sort, talking to them about the Orchard and the Efrafans.

But Fiver really didn't care much for it, so he snuck past them, and found his way outside. It looked like Frith was just about to start setting.

"Good, I've got time to search and get back before anyone notices I am gone," Fiver thought.

"Yet, maybe I should tell at least tell Hazel that I am leaving, since he will worry."

"Fiver."

There it was again, but still he could see no one calling him, so he ventured forth. It seemed that the voice was calling from the Orchard.

"Well, at least if I get into some type of trouble, I can run to Bark's Place."

Soon he was in the middle of the orchard, a couple of Apples here and there.

But what Fiver didn't realize he was being watched. From a nearby bush, formed two yellow eyes.

As he kept moving forward, looking for the doe who called him, something caught his eye.

It was an apple, which really is no surprise since he was in an Orchard, but this apple was only half eaten.

"Hmm that's strange… I know Bark and she doesn't really eat outside, nor leave unfinished food around."

Yet Fiver just shrugged it off, thinking that maybe another animal just wandered by and forgot about it. So Fiver went along with his pursuit, to find out who was calling his name.

CRACK!

Fiver stopped cold in his step. Someone was following him, he look around and saw nothing but bushes and trees.

Then, to his shock, a large badger came out of the bush it was hiding in.

At first, he thought it was Bark just coming to say hello…but this badger looked a lot bigger and meaner than Bark.

The next thing Fiver knew, the badger charged at him with full force with its mouth open. Sharp teeth could be seen inside.

So Fiver's first instinct kicked in...RUN!

With that Fiver took off, not really caring where he was going, just as long as it took him away from this snarling badger.

"Great, now I am going to die to this badger, and for what? Just to find a doe calling my name."

After some time of running, Fiver soon realized that he was slowing down. He was getting tired. Only the strength of survival was keeping him going.

At this rate, he was going to be killed by this badger in a matter of seconds. Yet, soon, Fiver found himself stumbling forward. It seemed that he had tripped over a fallen branch.

At first he thought he would land on the ground and be at the badger's mercy, but to his shock, his body was slammed under a large root, his upper body on one side with his backend on the other side. It seemed he had gotten stuck.

"Really, why is it that all the bad things happen to me?!" Fiver shouted.

He tried to push himself free so he could continue running from this badger, so he put his front and back paws on the ground and tried to push himself forward, but all that happened was his claws scraping the ground and his backend just squishing up against the opposite side of the root.

"I am a runt! How could I be stuck for being too big?" Fiver grunted. He tried again, but the same thing happened, his backside just squished up against the opposite side.

Giving up, he just laid there waiting to be eaten, but to his surprise he didn't feel any pain, the badger was gone.

"Wait, where did it go?" Fiver questioned, "At least it's better than getting eaten, I suppose."

"Hello," A mysterious voice called.

"Who said that?" Fiver said. As he tried to hide the fear in his voice, thinking it could be another predator.

"I did." The mysterious voice said. Then out of nowhere, a female rabbit jumped down from where she sat on the root Fiver was trapped under.

She was a little bit smaller than Fiver, mostly white, with the exception of her four Black paws, both black ears and the tip of her tail, which was also black. Yet, to Fiver, he was staring at the most beautiful doe he had ever seen his life.

"Hello?" the mysterious doe asked.

"Hhh-eell-ooo," Fiver stuttered through his words.

"You're funny! Hi, my name is Molly," she said with a giggle, and stretched out her paw to shake his.

"What's your name by the way?" Molly asked curiously.

"My name is Fiver," he said, trying to shake her extended paw, but soon remember where he was.

"Sorry, I am kind of stuck." Fiver replied, pulling back his paw, at the same time blushing under his fur.

"Yep, you sure are stuck," Molly said as she circled around Fiver, so she could get a better view of the situation.

After she was back in front of Fiver, an idea sprung into her head.

"Oh, well here let me help you." Molly said happily, "Here, give me your paw, Fiver."

So Fiver stretched out his left paw. Molly bit down on his wrist and tugged backward as hard as she could. Using his one free paw, Fiver helped push against the root, yet all that happened, was Fiver felt himself being stretched forward and his backend refusing to fit through.

"So, where are you from?" Molly said through her teeth as she kept pulling on her new friend.

"I am…arrrgh…from Water…mmmmf…ship Down." Fiver said, through his teeth, which were clenched from the strain of being pulled and yanked.

Soon after, a little time had gone by, Molly stopped pulling, knowing that this wasn't going to work.

"I am sorry, I am not strong enough to get you out of there, Fiver," Molly said sadly, while letting go of his left paw. Molly sat down in front of her new stuck friend.

"Well, thanks anyway for trying," Fiver replied, still happy to be with his new beautiful friend.

"So umm, where did you live, Molly?" Fiver politely asked as he readjusted his body to be more comfortable.

"Well, actually, I don't really know." Molly sadly replied, "All I can really recall is that I lost my family some seasons ago. I don't know if they just abandoned me, or if they forgot about me."

"I am sorry to hear that. I know what it's like to lose someone you loved," Fiver said softly, recalling the time long ago when his mother died from the white blindness, leaving just him and his older brother, Hazel.

As both of them sat there quietly, all of a sudden, Molly started to jump up and down with excitement, which confused Fiver.

"Why are you doing that?" Fiver questioned her.

"I came up with another idea to get you unstuck!" Molly shouted with excitement. Soon she stopped jumping.

"I think or, well, maybe if I go around, I can push you free!" Molly said with excitement and ran to the other side of Fiver.

"No, no, that's quite all right!" Fiver quickly replied. He didn't want his brand new friend to touch him there. "I can just wait for my older brother, Hazel, to come find me."

"I didn't know you had an older brother." Molly said as she sat behind Fiver, staring at his tail, which was swaying back and forth.

"Oh well, I can still get you out right now, no trouble at all!" Molly replied in excitement.

"Well, I guess I have no choice then." Fiver sighed, as he braced himself on the root.

"All right, here goes nothing!"

With that, Molly put her two front paws on each side of Fiver's backend and put her back legs into the ground for more stability. At the same time Fiver was blushing, hard, since the only rabbit that ever touched him there was Hazel, and that was just for when he was being checked over after a battle.

Molly pressed forward with her front paws while digging into the ground with her back paws. Fiver's backside was just being squished around the root. It didn't seem that he was moving at all.

"Errrr, come on! Why won't you move?" Molly grunted. Now she was really getting into it, putting her shoulder against Fiver's backside and pushing with all of her might. Fiver tried to help by pushing with his back legs, but, because of the angle she was pushing at, he could just barely scrape the ground.

"This is so embarrassing. Why did this happen to me?" Fiver thought.

Despite the effort, Molly could clearly see Fiver's soft fur bunch at the site where he had stuck fast.

Soon Molly sighed, stopped pushing, and hopped back over to Fiver's front end.

"I'm sorry Fiver! I just can't seem to get you out of there," she sighed, so she just sat back down in front of him and began to think again.

"It's all right. At least you tried, and I thank you for that," Fiver said.

Then his eyes got wide. Right behind Molly was the badger that was chasing him in the first place.

"Run!" Fiver carefully whispered to Molly, trying not to alert the badger. But Molly just cocking her head to the side.

"Run? Run from what?" She asked, unaware that there was a badger sneaking up on her.

"The badger!" Fiver shouted

This caught Molly's attention, so she turned around to see a very large, very mean badger looming over her.

Eyes wide with fear, Molly couldn't move. She was frozen.

"I can't watch!" Fiver thought as he put his paws over his eyes, thinking in a few seconds his brand new friend would be torn apart.

Yet after that few seconds went by, he didn't hear anything.

That was until he heard the strangest thing...laughter. Soon he moved his paws to see the predator laughing with his new friend.

"Molly, what are you doing?" Fiver asked curiously, doing his best to hide the fear in his voice.

Once Molly was done laughing, she answered.

"Fiver, this is my best friend, Max. He is a badger!" Molly shouted in excitement, introducing her friend.

"Hi. Any friend of Molly is a friend of mine…also, I'm sorry for scaring you before," Max replied, feeling a little guilty, since he scared her new friend.

"Well, hi, Max. My name is Fiver," The stuck rabbit introduced himself with some relief, now knowing he wasn't going to be eaten.

"Yeah, we just met. I have been trying to get him free from this root that has him stuck here," Molly told Max.

Molly let out a large sigh. She still had no ideas on how to get Fiver out of there.

Then, Molly started to jump up and down again. Obviously, this was an indication that she had another idea.

"I have it! Why don't I just go and get some help from your warren? It shouldn't take that long!" Molly said with excitement, starting to hop off in a random direction, since Fiver never did tell her where his warren was.

"No! I mean...I don't want anyone else seeing me like this!" Fiver quickly shouted before Molly could get away, knowing he would just die of embarrassment if anyone saw him like this.

Molly soon stopped in her tracks and walked back over to her two friends.

"Great. I have tried pulling and pushing! I am just out of ideas! I'm sorry Fiver," Molly sighed.

"Wait. I just might have an idea, but it won't be pretty, and you might lose some hair with it, both of you," Max replied, trying not to chuckle, which confused the two rabbits.

"Alright, follow me, Molly," Max said, as he and Molly went around to Fiver's backside.

As they got there, they both sat behind Fiver, both staring at his back end.

"Alright, so this might hurt both of you, but it should get you out of there, Fiver," the large badger said. "Molly, grab his tail with your teeth."

With that said, Molly bit down on Fiver's tail, which made the little guy yelp in pain.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you!" Molly apologized through her teeth.

"All right now, Molly, I'm going to grab your tail," Max warned her as he bit down on her tail. Now they formed a chain.

"OK, so this going to hurt a lot, but it should get him unstuck, so Molly, start pulling with all of your might. I'll do the same," Max told her as he began to pull backwards.

So with that said, Molly began to pull herself, but all it did was just stretch their tail's.

Fiver clenched his teeth and closed his eyes as his tail began to be pulled away from him. But he could feel his backend starting to move, yet his fur in the front began to bunch up. Seeing what they were trying to do, Fiver placed his front paws on the ground and began to push backwards.

Molly could feel herself being stretched in half, because Fiver wasn't moving, so neither was her front side, but her back end sure was, since it was trying to follow her own tail.

After some time, Fiver soon realized he could no longer touch the root, nor could he touch the ground. His whole body was being stretched away from the root, but it felt as if he was being lifted into the air, which in fact he was.

It seemed that Max had gotten on his hind legs, and begun to pull both of them upwards.

Molly could no longer touch the ground. Because of this, all four of her paws just dangled there as she held on to Fiver's tail.

Molly tried her best to hold onto Fiver, but soon she realize that from all the pulling, she was starting to yank out some of his fur, but still she held on with all her strength.

At this rate, Max was probably going to rip off Molly's tail if he pulled any longer.

Fiver thought he was going to lose his tail in a few seconds, but lucky for him, all that pulling paid off. He pop out like a cork.

He flew into the air and landed on his two new friends.

"Yeah, you're free, Fiver!" Molly shouted in excitement, "By the way…umm…do you mind getting off?"

"Sorry," Fiver apologized, as he got off of his rescuers.

Then, once they got back on their feet, something took over Fiver, and the next thing he knew, he licked Molly's nose.

Realize what he just done, Fiver tried to apologize, but couldn't get a word out, he was so embarrassed.

So with that, Molly got in Fiver's face. She looked very mad, but to Fiver's shock, instead of getting hit, she licked him right back.

"I like you too, if that's what you meant," Molly said, trying not to show she was blushing as well.

"Ow, but saving you really did a number on my tail!" Molly exclaimed as she rubbed the base of it.

Fiver realized that his hurt even worse and began to do the same.

"Well my older brother Hazel can look over our tails." Fiver replied, as he kept rubbing the base of his tail. "That is, if you want to go back with me, Molly?"

"I would love to, but it looks like we got to find a place to rest. It's getting dark," Molly replied, as she noticed that Frith was about to set.

"Alright. I know a perfect place we can rest. And I bet you Max will love it the most," Fiver replied with a wink to Max, which confused the large badger. But he followed them anyway.


	2. Chapter 2: Despair & Friends

It was night time in Efrafa. All the slaves were asleep, along with most of the guards, except for two.

It was Moss and Captain Campion, both distracted by what had happened in the early morning, so they had decided to stay in the same burrow.

Deaths had become common in Efrafa for the soldiers, from weasels, badgers, owls, and hawks, but the General didn't care, all he wanted was Fiver, Hazel and Bigwig. Captain Campion had lost a lot of soldiers under his command, but this recent death had hit him hard.

"Please, don't let go!" These words echoed in Campion's mind, he was trying so hard to forget about it.

Campion closed his eyes shut, which caught Moss's attention, knowing he was thinking about what happen earlier.

"Sir, I told you, it wasn't your fault! It was Vervain's!" Moss shouted, as he tried to comfort his Captain.

"I had him, and I just let him go." Campion replied, trying so hard not cry, especially in front of Moss.

To Moss's surprise, Campion actually fell into his arms and started to cry, as if he was kit who just lost his mother.

"It's all right sir, I'm here for you." Moss whispered to his Captain, as he held him in his arms.

"You know it wasn't your fault, and Larch wouldn't blame you for it!"

Soon Campion's mind drifted back to that awfully morning.

He was leading a patrol consisting of himself, Vervain and Larch. They were told to go back to the orchard, but like before, they came up with nothing and soon started their way back. The group was force to stop for Larch, who had hurt his leg trying to jump over a log. So Campion was force to carry Larch, but they soon needed to rest.

"We are going to have stop here," Captain Campion announced, as he set Larch back down, trying to be as careful as possible with his injured friend.

"Captain Vervain, I need you to stand watch. Carrying Larch was a little bit tiring for me." Campion told his fellow captain, as he laid his head down next to Larch, who was already asleep.

"Why don't you watch him yourself!" Vervain shouted, but soon realized that doing that did no good, since Campion was already fast asleep.

"You can't tell me what to do!" Vervain thought. Soon he too drifted off to sleep, disobeying Campion's order. What Vervain hadn't noticed, was that there was a weasel following them the whole time, waiting for them to be asleep before it struck.

Soon Campion woke up to hear Larch screaming. As fast as possible, Campion got up to his feet and woke Captain Vervain.

"What are you doing? You were supposed to be on watch!" Campion screamed at Vervain, who had just woken up.

"Ha, I don't take orders from you!" Vervain shouted back, but soon he too heard Larch screaming. "Where's Larch?"

"Campion!" Larch screamed as he was being taken away.

"Larch, don't worry! I'm coming!" Campion shouted back. With that he took off in the direction of Larch's voice, leaving Vervain to follow.

"Campion, help me!"

Campion soon found Larch. To his horror, a weasel had him; the same one that was following them from the beginning. It was dragging Larch by his good leg, taking him back to its home, in a small, dark, open hole.

"Campion! Campion, help me!" Larch screamed, trying to grab on to anything that would help him. But it was a just an open field; there was nothing to grab onto.

Campion sprinted as fast as his body would let him, trying to catch Larch before the weasel could take him into its home to be killed.

Campion had just barely grabbed on to Larch's paw, with his teeth, and soon tried to pull him back out into the daylight.

Larch screamed in pain as he felt him stretch two ways. Soon, to Campion's relief, Vervain had arrived. He knew he wouldn't be able to hold on to Larch for much longer…

"Please, don't let me go!" Larch pleaded to Campion, as he was being pulled back into the darkness.

"I won't let you go. Vervain, help me!" Campion shouted through his clenched teeth, as he tried to hold onto Larch.

"No, I am not going to risk my life for his!" Vervain shouted back, as he started to walk away from them.

"Campion, I'm slipping!" Larch screamed, as he felt his paw being pulled away from his captain.

"No, no don't let go Larch! Don't you dare let go!" Campion shouted through his teeth, but it was true he couldn't hold Larch for much longer.

"Vervain, help me!

Yet Vervain just kept walking away.

Larch soon felt his paws slip out of his captain's mouth, all he could see was him being pulled away from his captain, screaming Campion's name as he went down to his death.

"No, Larch!" Campion shouted in the dark hole, trying to locate his friend until the screaming had stopped. Campion didn't want to move. He was stunned. He knew Vervain would do anything to save his own skin, but how could he leave Larch to die like this?

Soon Campion's memory had ended and he was back with Moss. Soon the sorrowing Captain had stopped crying enough to get off of Moss.

" I had him…I could have saved him, but I wasn't strong enough," Campion sniffed, "How could Vervain do that? We would have saved him, if he had helped me."

"You know Vervain. He will save his own skin over anyone's!" Moss replied in disgust, as he tried to comfort his sad captain.

"Come on, sir. You just need a good night's sleep, then in the morning, we can honor Larch." Moss cheerfully continued, which made Campion smile a little.

"Thanks, Moss. You truly are a good friend, and I thank you for that." Campion said with a smile. Then he laid his head on the ground and drifted off to sleep…but what he didn't know that Moss had not.

"Now, I am going to go and pay Vervain a little visit myself!" Moss thought. Moss was close friends with Larch, just like Campion was, so his death had hit him hard too.

As Moss left his own burrow to find Vervain, and then have a very interesting talk with that pathetic excuse for a rabbit, his pursuit soon ended, when he heard a very interesting conversation coming from one of the prisoners' dens.

Moss pressed his body against the wall and started to listen in on the conversation.

"Yes, with all of us combined we can overthrow the general!" A mysterious voice whispered in excitement. It sounded a lot like a buck.

"You know you can't talk like that! What if someone hears you?" Another voice whispered. This one was a doe.

"So there's a rebellion growing in Efrafa…only was a matter of time," Moss thought as he tried to get closer so he could hear them better.

To his shock, something grabbed Moss and pulling him into the burrow. He was thrown to the ground and his mouth was covered so he couldn't yell for help. As he looked around the burrow, he saw that there were three bucks and one doe. They all looked skinny, but that wasn't much of a surprise, since the prisoners were barely fed.

The only doe that was in there was pure white. She was smaller than the bucks, maybe a bit bigger then Fiver. One of the bucks looked like he was maybe bigger, or the same height as Bigwig. Obviously he was leader of this group. His whole body was brown, except for his black tail and one paw, which was black, but it looked like it was burned, not just a natural color. The bigger rabbit was standing in front of the other two smaller bucks, obviously trying to protect them. He was also the one holding down Moss.

"It's Captain Moss! He heard everything! We are so dead!" One the bucks whispered, hiding behind the larger one. "What are we going to do?"

"I say we kill him!" The biggest buck replied, pushing his claws down on Moss's throat.

"Are you crazy? We can't kill a captain of Owsla!" The white doe said, trying to reason with the biggest one, and trying to hide the fear in her voice.

"Well, we can't just let him go! He will tell Woundwort, and then we will suffer!" the biggest buck pointed out. "Looks like we're just going to have to kill him."

With that said, the biggest buck started to cut into Moss throat. Moss closed his eyes, knowing he would be killed in a few seconds.

"Let him go, or else I will take you down myself!" Campion shouted, as he slammed his head in the biggest one's side, sending him flying against the wall.

Moss opened his eyes and, to his relief, he saw Campion standing over him, protecting him.

Soon Campion got off of Moss, grabbed him by his paw, and helped him back up to his feet.

"Are you alright, Moss?" Campion asked, worrying for his best friend, and simultaneously watching the bigger buck, making sure he didn't try anything.

"Yes, thanks to you. If you hadn't come in when you had, I would be dead!" Moss replied to his friend.

"Please, we're sorry! We didn't mean for any of this happen! Please don't tell Woundwort, or he will kill us!" the small white doe pleaded to the two Captains.

"Lily, get away from them!" the biggest buck shouted at her, walking over and pushing her behind him.

"Please, spare them, they didn't want this! It was me, all me."

"Don't worry, we won't say a word. If anything, we have come to help you." Moss replied, which shocked the whole group, even Campion.

"What? Are you crazy Moss? They tried to kill you! Campion whispered to his friend.

"No, I'm not. I heard them. They want to rebel against Woundwort!" Moss explained to Campion, "Aren't you tired of losing good men, Campion? And for what, just to find some good rabbits and destroy them?"

Campion would have argued with Moss, seeing that these rabbits had almost taken his life. Yet everything Moss had just said was true. Why were they looking for these other rabbits? They had done nothing wrong, and yet everyday another soldier would be killed.

"Alright Moss. I trust you." Campion sighed.

"So what are your names?" he asked.

The biggest buck replied first.

"My name is Thorn."

"You have already met my daughter, Lily." Thorn said, as his daughter came over and sat next to her father.

Soon the two bucks came over. They weren't much bigger than Lily. One was brown like his father, but his paws were white, along with his white tail. The other one was the exact opposite. His body was white, but his paws and tail were brown.

"These two are my sons. This one is called Henry." Thorn said, pointing to the one with the brown tail. "The other one is called Willow."

He pointed to the one with the black tail.

"Well, nice to meet you. So what is this Moss heard you talking about? A rebellion against Woundwort?" Campion asked his large companion.

"We are tired of being forced to live under his rule!" Lily shouted.

"Lily, let me do the talking." Thorn said to his daughter, trying his best to keep her safe, along with her brothers.

"Captain Campion, Moss, where are you?" Vervain shouted. The two guards had forgotten all about their early morning exercise.

With that said Campion and Moss both ducked down, trying to hide from the wicked rabbit.

"It's Vervain! I forgot about the exercise we were supposed to do!" Moss whispered to Campion, as they watch Vervain run past the burrow.

"We will have to talk later. I am sorry." Campion said sadly to Thorn and his family. "Come on Moss. Let's go before Vervain knows we're missing."

Soon, the two left.

"Do you think we can trust them, father?" Willow asked, hoping his father would have the answer.

"I hope so. Even if we can't, I will make sure you all get out safe!" Thorn replied to his family, huddling them all up as if they were sheep, and forcing them to the back of the burrow. As they drifted off to sleep, he kept on eye open just in case, knowing he had already give up one daughter, he could not afford to lose anymore of his children.

Back at Watership Down, Hazel was already up. He sat on the high rock in the Honeycomb and waited anxiously for his search party to awake as well. His search party contained himself, Bigwig, Hawkbit, Dandelion and Holly.

Hazel just wanted them to go back out and search for his little brother. All night he couldn't sleep, fearing what might have happened to him. Finally, after Hawkbit showed up-the last one to arrive in the Honeycomb-they soon set out once again.

Hazel really had no more ideas on where to look. Holly was in charge of the stream, but he hadn't seen anything down there but fish. Bigwig was in charge of searching near the Efrafan borders, but there was no sign of Fiver being there, or anyone recently being captured. Dandelion was in charge of searching in the woods, but he said there was no sign that Fiver had been out there. As for Hawkbit, he was in charge of searching in the Orchard.

"Are you sure he wasn't in the Orchard, Hawkbit?" Hazel asked his companion, as they stop to rest before they continued on with their search.

"Yes, Hazel, for the thousandth time, I am sure!" Hawkbit snapped, obviously getting annoyed with the repeated question.

"Well it's not like Fiver to just leave, and not tell anyone where he was going!" Hazel shouted, scaring Hawkbit and surprising the rest of the group, since Hazel really never talked like that to anyone.

Hazel sighed, realizing what he had just done.

"I am sorry Hawkbit. I didn't mean to yell at you. It's just...I just wouldn't know what to do if I ever lost him." Hazel sighed.

Soon Bigwig came over and put a comforting paw on his shoulder, reassuring him they will find Fiver soon. Hazel replied back with a small smile.

"Wait, did you check Bark's place?" Hazel asked, since he thought that would be the safest place if he ever ran away.

"No, you told me to just check the Orchard, not Bark's place." Hawkbit grumbled.

"Umm, Hawkbit, that is part of the Orchard." Captain Holly replied, making Hawkbit look stupid.

"Oh…"

"Well, come on. He has to be there, he just has to be!" Hazel shouted, as sprinted off to the Orchard, while the rest of the group followed.

Back at the Orchard, Bark had agreed to let them all stay with her for the night, since she liked having company. So Max and Bark stayed in the one burrow, since both of them were badgers and had started to become friends, while Fiver and Molly stayed in another. But they had to be close to their badger companions.

As morning rose, Molly had just gotten up from her warm bed and started to stretch. As her backside was pointing up in the air, to stretch out her hind legs, Fiver awoke to see his new beautiful friend's backside, but being the sweet buck he is, he covered his eyes and waited until she was done to re-open them.

Molly giggled when she saw this, so she took advantage of the situation and snuck behind her lover, trying so hard not to make any noise. Fiver reopened his eyes to see Molly was gone, unaware that she was right behind him, letting out small giggles.

"Molly, where did you go?" The seer asked, worried that she might have run off, but he got no reply.

"She must have gone to find Max." Fiver thought, so with that he made his way out of his burrow to go find Max and Bark, unaware that Molly was right on his tail.

Turns out, those two were already awake, talking to each other, but they soon stopped when they saw Fiver had come in.

They both looked at each other, very confused, mostly on why Molly was so low to the ground and behind Fiver, trying so hard to be quiet.

"Hey, I didn't mean to disturb you, but have any of you seen Molly?" Fiver asked the two badgers, worried that his friend had run off.

Seeing that Fiver really had no clue on where she was, Bark was about to reveal that she was behind him, but soon stopped herself, when Molly had begun shaking her head and pleading with her paws, not to tell him.

"Um…no…we haven't." Bark lied, trying hard not to laugh herself. Max just lay there silently, staring at Molly.

With that said, Fiver turned around to leave, now knowing she wasn't in there, and starting to get worried. Soon, Molly was forced to move her body like Fiver did, trying hard not to be seen by the confused little seer.

Fiver sat there for a little bit, thinking of where she could have gone. As Max watched, the large badger soon saw Molly's tail, which was swaying back and forth in front of him, as she was having fun with Fiver. So Max decided to end this, and lightly bit down on the tip of Molly's tail, not too hard to where Molly would notice, but enough to where he could hold her in place.

Fiver soon turned around to ask another question, so like before Molly tried to get behind him, and not be seen, like she has been doing before, but to her shock, she fell to the ground, now exposed to Fiver. It seems that when she had tried to jump behind him, her tail was caught in Max's teeth, so she fell to the ground and soon Max spat out her tail.

"Aw, why did you ruin my fun, Max?" Molly whined, as she confronted her large friend.

"I am sorry Molly, but I have seen how long your pranks can last." Max replied.

"Plus, your friend looked really worried about you."

"I didn't know. I am sorry I did that, Fiver." Molly said sadly to her friend, thinking she really scared him. Soon, to Molly's relief, Fiver came over and gave her a little reassuring lick on her nose.

"It's all right. If anything it was pretty funny." Fiver laughed which in turned made his girlfriend laugh as well.

"Ow, but I forgot about my tail. It's still sore." Molly whined, as she started to rub the base of it, just like before when she had just rescued Fiver.

"Yeah, that's right, I forgot… Well, it's day time, so let's go see my older brother!" Fiver exclaimed. He was happy to finally be able to go back home and tell Hazel the good news.

"All right, sure. Let's go!" Molly shouted in excitement, but soon stopped herself, realizing she had forgotten about Max.

"Max, Bark, do you want to come?" Fiver asked the two large badgers.

"No thanks, I think I am happy here." Max replied as he turned back to Bark, and stared into her eyes. At first Molly was shocked to hear this but soon saw that those two badgers had fallen for each other.

"Well, all right, we will try and visit every day!" Molly said, running up her friend and giving him one last hug, which surprised Fiver. They wouldn't be abandoning them forever, just for a little bit.

When the last goodbyes were said, the two rabbits were about to set off to Watership Down. They were just about to exit the orchard when they heard something.

"Fiver!" a mysterious voice shouted.

Soon Fiver had found himself being pinned under a large buck, but to his surprise, it wasn't an Efrafan. It was his older brother, Hazel.

"Fiver, I am so happy you're alive!" Hazel shouted, trying hard to contain his excitement as he hugged his baby brother. Soon, the rest of the group showed up, but they didn't say anything, letting Hazel enjoy his reunion.

"Please, please, please don't ever run off like that again." Hazel said, still hugging his brother, just so happy he had him safe in his paws again, not even noticing the doe that was standing off to the side.

"I missed you too, but can you please let me have some air?" Fiver squeaked, as his lungs tried to grasp some air, from Hazel's tight grip. Hazel immediately let go so Fiver wouldn't pass out from the lack of air.

Soon Hazel noticed the doe standing beside him. Immediately he shoved Fiver behind him and stood protectively in front his brother. Soon the others joined in and acted as a barrier for Fiver. Of course Molly, being the funny little doe she is, just giggled at them, confusing them to.

"Hazel, it's all right! She's a friend!" Fiver said as he pushed through his friends, who acted as a barrier. Soon Fiver stood next to his friend and gave her a lick on the nose, reassuring her that everything was alright.

"Her name is Molly, and she is my girlfriend, Hazel." Fiver said, which shocked the whole group, even his older brother, but that expression soon disappeared, and switched over to a very proud face.

"Well, hello, Molly. My name is Hazel. I am the chief of Watership Down, and, as I think you can already tell, Fiver's older brother." Hazel said to Molly, stretching out his paw to shake hers.

But instead of doing the same, Molly just giggled, because it reminded her of how she came to know Fiver.

"Did I do something funny?" Hazel asked as he set his paw back down onto the ground, confused as to why she was giggling.

"It's nothing, Hazel. It just reminded me on how I met Fiver." Molly replied to the confused chief, "I can't tell you. Fiver doesn't want me to say it. I guess it's too embarrassing for him or something."

"Well, I am very tired of searching. Can we go home?" Hawkbit grumbled, making everyone else agree with him.

"Yes, we can go home." Hazel laughed.

As they all started their way back, Hazel, being the overprotective brother he is, carried Fiver on his back, and honestly, Fiver didn't mind at all.

Yet the group's trouble weren't over yet. There, standing right in their pathway was none other than Vervain.

Soon the group of seven rabbits was surrounded by the Efrafans. Hazel, of course, not risking anything, shoved his younger brother in the center of them, along with Molly.

Vervain, being the cowardly rabbit he is, stayed behind his warriors as they moved closer on the Watershippers.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? Fiver, Hazel, and Bigwig, oh, the General will be so pleased!" Vervain addressed his new captives.

"Only in your dreams, Vervain!" Bigwig shouted with his famous war cry.

He attacked the nearest guards, which set chaos, as the rest of the captive group attacked the Efrafans. As the fight raged on, Vervain tried his best to avoid any conflict, so he soon found Molly and Fiver trying their best to help.

"Fiver, who are these guys?" Molly shouted as she kicked a guard into a tree with her hind legs.

"Let's just say they hate us!" Fiver shouted, trying not to get bitten or hurt in the battle.

"Fiver, look out!" Hazel said, seeing a guard coming right at him. He picked up his younger brother and held him in the air as Fiver used his hind legs and kicked the guard away.

"This way, come on!" Captain Holly shouted, as he had found an opening for everyone to escape through. With that said, everyone ran for their lives. As the Efrafans chased after them, Hazel made sure Fiver and Molly were ahead of the group, not wanted to risk losing Fiver to Vervain. Soon they would be forced to stop and they would be in trouble seeing the Efrafans outnumber them.

"Bigwig, take everyone back to the Down! I am going to distract them!" Hazel shouted over to his best friend as they kept running.

Bigwig nodded in agreement as he led the rest off into a separate pathway, but what he hadn't noticed was that Fiver wasn't there. He had jumped off into a bush and waiting for his friends to leave. Knowing his older brother would be in trouble, he set off to help him.

Back with Hazel…he wasn't faring very well with the Efrafans. He had run into a stone wall, so he was forced to fight. Usually Hazel was a more kind spirited rabbit, but thinking of what would happen if he was captured, not ever being able to see Fiver again, his mood changed. Now keen on staying free, he was able to kill off two Efrafans and wound three others, but soon they had him pinned down.

"Tell me, where did your little friends go?" Vervain shouted at the pinned down Hazel, knowing he was safe since the Watership chief was pinned down by the larger guards.

"Go die to a weasel, you pathetic excuse for a rabbit!" Hazel replied, along with a spit in Vervain's face.

This just pissed off the cowardly rabbit and he replied back by slashing his claws across Hazel's face.

"Fine then. I guess you will die. No one disrespects me!" Vervain shouted as he raised his claws to end Hazel's life.

"I am sorry, Fiver. I couldn't be there for you…" Hazel thought his last words as he closed his eyes before he was about to killed. But to his shock he felt no pain. Soon, he opened them so see a terrifying sight. It was Fiver, who had stopped Vervain from killing Hazel.

"Ha! You are foolish, little runt, thinking you could challenge me!' Vervain shouted at the little seer.

"Actually, I won't need to fight you. They will!" Fiver shouted, and soon the rest of his group arrived. It was Bigwig, Holly, Dandelion, Hawkbit, Bark and Max. The two groups clashed, but the Efrafans were no match for the badgers.

Soon the Efrafans were forced to flee, being outnumbered, and threatened of being overwhelmed. But Vervain didn't leave unscathed. He escaped with the three same claw marks that were left on Hazel. Scarred by Fiver, who was very upset and took his anger out on the cowardly rabbit.

"All right, now we can go home!" Hazel shouted to his companions as Fiver and Bigwig helped him to his feet.

As they were walking along back home, Hazel caught up to Fiver to whisper something to his younger brother.

"Thank you, Fiver. If it wasn't for you, I would be dead!" Hazel whispered to his younger brother, making sure no one else heard.

"Your welcome. I just didn't know what I would do without you, Hazel." Fiver whispered back.

"When we get back, you can tell me all about your new friend, Fiver. And how you to met, since it sounds so funny, or, well, according to Molly." Hazel said with a little chuckle.


	3. Chapter 3: Magic

Everyone had finally made it back to the Down in one piece. As everyone had gone to see Blackberry for their wounds, Molly, Fiver, and Hazel's three kits were outside enjoying the nice summer breeze. Once Hazel had his three scratch marks looked over, he soon joined them outside. Molly was having the time of her life at her new home. She was playing with the three kits, Mallow, Snowdrop and Gilia. They were playing hide and seek, and Mallow was it. Molly had the perfect idea for a hiding spot, too.

"Ok, I am counting!" Mallow shouted with his eyes closed, as everyone started to hide.

Hazel and Fiver were watching as they lay on the soft grass, just enjoying their peace and quiet.

"It seems, Molly had made friends with the kits, wouldn't you say little brother?" Hazel said to his brother, as he rolled back over to see the kits having fun with Molly.

Soon, to their surprise, Molly had come over to the two brothers, getting ready to hide. Then all of a sudden, she was gone. Something had rammed into her. At first they thought it was a predator that took Molly, scaring Fiver half to death, but to their relief, it was a bird, a bird named Kehaar.

"Ya, Kehaar back, with Hannah!" Kehaar exclaimed to his bunny friends as he lay on the grass, not realizing he was on top of someone.

"Nice landing, you silly bird." Hannah replied, as she got up from the grass she had fallen into.

"Ah, Kehaar. How was your trip with Hannah?" Hazel asked, as he slowly walked over to his bird companion, with Fiver following him.

Kehaar was about to answer the question, until he felt his body move. Then Molly's head popped out from under him. Instead of being mad, she giggled like she always does when something weird happens. Soon Fiver had come over to help his girlfriend out from under the large bird.

"Kehaar sorry, I guess I didn't see ya." Kehaar apologized as he got off the small doe.

"It's all right! Hi! My name is Molly." Molly introduced herself, once she had gotten back up to her feet.

"Yes, my name is Kehaar and this Hannah." The gull introduced himself and Hannah.

"Well, nice to meet you!" Molly exclaimed, as she went back over and sat by her boyfriend.

"To answer your question, Hazel, it was great!" Hannah answered. "We learned so much…or I did, anyway. Kehaar just caught fish, most of the time.

"Wait, where did they go?" Molly asked. Fiver was the one who explained it.

"Well, they both went off somewhere. But where they went was to help Hannah with her magic, so she can control it better or learn new spells!" Fiver happily replied, which really confused Molly.

"Here, I will show you, silly rabbit." Hannah said to the obviously very confused doe. With that said, the mouse rubbed her paws, closed her eyes, and concentrated on her magic, then she pointed one paw into the air and soon little bolts of energy shot up and exploded like fireworks in the air, then into bright colors, and soon disappeared while it drifted back down to earth.

Of course, being rabbits, it scared the three little kits back into the Down. It had also scared Hazel and Fiver with the loud noise, forcing them to cover their ears, and Fiver took cover behind his older brother, but, for some reason Molly seemed unaffected by it. As she watched the beautiful fire in the sky, she giggled. When she saw that both of the brothers were afraid of the loud noise, she soon hopped back over to help Hazel reassure Fiver that it was okay.

"That was beautiful, Hannah! Thank you for showing me!" Molly said with excitement, as she stood next to the two brothers.

"You're welcome, dear, now I am going back inside to get some sleep!" Hannah yawned, obviously tired from a long trip, and from using her magic.

She and Kehaar disappeared inside, leaving just Hazel, Fiver, and Molly outside.

"Well, I should really go check on those kits, or else Primrose will never let me hear the end of it!" Hazel chuckled, as he got up and walked back into the warren. Really, he left so Fiver and Molly could be alone. So it was just Molly and Fiver, all by themselves.

"I really love it here, Fiver. Thank you for showing me this place." Molly whispered as she lay down on the nice, cool, grass.

"Your brother is very nice too."

"Yeah, I couldn't ask for anyone better, since he did take care of me and watched me as I was growing up from a small kit." Fiver said happily, knowing that Hazel would always be there for him.

"Why did he have to take care of you anyway? Molly asked as she got close to listen to his story.

"It's because most rabbits hated me, just because I was different and a runt. No one liked me. Well, other than Hazel and my mother." Fiver sighed as he lay down next to Molly.

"I am sorry. The world can be pretty cruel huh? Just like how I lost my family." Molly sighed. They both just sat there, thinking. That was until Hazel had come back to invite them back into the Down. They were throwing a party for Kehaar and Hannah's return. So both of the little rabbits agreed, and soon joined the rest in the warren for some fun.

As the Watershippers were having a great time, Vervain was in the General's Burrow having a tough time, explaining how he lost Hazel, Fiver and Bigwig so easily, while General Woundwort listened. Woundwort was not happy.

Moss and Campion were secretly listening in on the conversation from outside the burrow, hoping nothing bad had happened to their friends.

"Now explained to me how in Frith's name you got two of my soldiers killed, against one rabbit, and others wounded under your command?!" Woundwort shouted, scaring Vervain badly.

"Well, you see sir, it was because-"

"I don't want your excuses!" Woundwort snarled, interrupting Vervain, who just stood there trying not to shake in fear.

"Now, tell me why I shouldn't just kill you now!"

"Well, because, sir, I have a perfect plan to get Hazel, Bigwig and Fiver!" Vervain replied, knowing his life was now on the line.

"All right. But if you fail me one more time, then you're gone!" Woundwort shouted as he sharpened his claws on the hard stone floor, making it very clear for the scared rabbit.

"Now, tell me your plan."

"All right, good. So it doesn't sound like they got any of our friends!" Moss happily whispered to Campion as they secretly listened in.

"Good, good. Listen, I've got to go and meet up with Blackberry before it gets late," Campion whispered.

"Alright, Moss, finish up here. Then, when you are done, go and talk to Thorn and his family. Then once I come back, report to me what they have said."

"All right. I can do that, sir." Moss replied. Then his Captain left to go see his mate.

Back at Watership Down, the party was going great. Everyone was having fun. Hazel and Primrose were talking to each other, while Fiver and Molly were both sharing a carrot. Hawkbit, Dandelion, and Strawberry were having fun with their usual pranks, but their choice of a target wasn't the smartest one. They were going after Holly and Bigwig.

"Hazel, I am so happy for Fiver. It seems he has finally found someone for his own," Primrose said to her mate as she looked over to the two, who were having fun with each other.

"Yeah, Molly seems happy as well. I mean, look at them!" Hazel exclaimed, as he saw Molly had taken Fiver's carrot, and was running around with it, as Fiver tried to get it back. For a while Fiver actually looked happy.

As Fiver, was chasing Molly and having fun with her, he soon stopped and fell to the ground and started to moan obviously having a terrible vision. His moan had cause the party to stop, while the rabbits crowded around him. Of course, Hazel was the first one on the scene and tried his best to wake him. Primrose was explaining to Molly that there was no need to worry, since she had never seen Fiver have a vision.

"Fiver! Fiver, are you alright? Can you hear me?" Hazel asked his brother, now very concerned because he wasn't getting a response. Fiver just lay there shaking terrible as if he was cold, but the weirdest thing was, Fiver wasn't saying anything. Usually when he had a vision, he would chant some words, but this time he did nothing but shake and moan

"Help me, Bigwig. Let's take him back to his burrow." Hazel said, as he grabbed one of Fiver's arms and Bigwig grabbed the other. They took Fiver back to his burrow so he could rest. Primrose took Molly to stay in Hazel's burrow, so she wouldn't have to see Fiver like this.

In Fiver's burrow, Hazel had lay down next to his shaking brother to try and warm him up, but it didn't work. The best Hazel could do was lay there and rub Fiver's head with his paw, just like when they were kits and Fiver had a nightmare. Hazel did his best to try to calm down his brother, but nothing worked. That was until Hannah had come in.

"Is he still the same?" Hannah asked Hazel, who was still doing his best to comfort his little brother.

"Sadly, yes. I just don't understand what's wrong with him!" Hazel shouted, slamming his paws down on the ground, showing his frustration and feeling helpless, and also scaring Hannah.

"I am sorry, Hannah. I didn't mean to scare you."

"No you don't need to. I understand. It's your little brother and you feel helpless." Hannah replied, seeing that Hazel was very depressed and worried for his little brother.

"Here, I think I can do something that might help, Fiver." With that said, Hannah moved over to Fiver's shaking body, and put her paw on Fiver's forehead. Soon she closed her eyes and concentrated on her magic. Soon, he stopped shaking and calmed down.

"What did you do, Hannah?! You know what, I don't want to know. Just thank you, thank you so much!" Hazel shouted in excitement, knowing whatever Hannah had done had worked. Soon Hazel curled up around his younger brother to keep him warm, and when Fiver would wake up, to reassure him that he was safe with him.

Soon Hannah had left, with a smile on her face, seeing that Hazel had fallen asleep with his brother. Of course, the others had gathered around to see the two brothers sleeping together, most to see how Fiver was doing. But instead, they looked and saw how adorable the two brothers were.

Soon Fiver's vision had drug on for a couple of hours. Blackberry had finally came back from her visit with Campion to hear what had happened to Fiver, and checked on them constantly. Finally, to Hazel's relief, Fiver had finally woken up.

"What…what happened?" Fiver asked weakly.

"You had a vision…but it wasn't a normal one. You didn't say anything." Hazel replied as he hugged his little brother, knowing he was safe now.

"Well, look who's awake!" Bigwig said as he entered the burrow, seeing that Fiver had awakened.

"Hazel was very worried for you."

"You were, Hazel?" Fiver asked as he looked over to his big brother, seeing him blush a little.

"Yes, yes. I was terrified that you wouldn't come out of it and I had lost you forever!" Hazel said sadly. But he was soon reassured when Fiver gave him a nice, long, hug, which he quickly returned.

"Well, if you want, you can stay in your burrow for the rest of the day. I will check up on you constantly. Then later you can tell me about that vision." Hazel told Fiver, as he got up, and went to go and check up on everyone else. Soon Molly came into check up on Fiver. She was staying with Primrose, and had missed him.

She soon lay down next to him and he started to lick her ear, which made her giggle. When Fiver stopped, he told Molly what had happened to him.

"I was hoping you wouldn't ever know about my vision powers. I am sorry I never told you. If you want, you can stop being my girlfriend." Fiver said sadly, which just made Molly giggle, confusing Fiver more than ever.

"Fiver, I don't mind that you have visions. You're still the same smart, shy, and handsome rabbit I met at the orchard," Molly replied, making Fiver blush.

"Thanks, Molly. I am glad you don't see me as a freak." Fiver said happily, then yawned, showing he was tired, and that said, they both fell asleep next to each other. But what they didn't know was that Hazel was watching them.

"Good for you, Fiver. I am glad you found someone." Hazel thought, as he watched the two fall asleep. Soon he hopped off back to the Honeycomb, knowing his brother was safe…but he would still check up on him in a few minutes. He soon found that Blackberry had got a crew for digging. The crew consisted of her, Dandelion, Hawkbit, and Pipkin, and of course the trio wasn't very happy to dig.

"Hello, Hazel. I heard what happened to Fiver. Is he alright?" Blackberry asked. She was also trying to keep an eye on three diggers, knowing they would run off at the first chance they got.

.

"Yes, he is. I am checking up on him constantly. Right now he is sleeping." Hazel told Blackberry.

"What? Why is he asleep? He is supposed to be helping us dig!" Hawkbit shouted. Obviously, Hazel didn't respond kindly to that, since Fiver was trying to sleep.

"Hawkbit, he isn't going to help because I let him stay in his burrow for the rest of the day!" Hazel whispered angrily. Instead of Hawkbit just being done arguing, he actually stood his ground and stared at Hazel, who looked angry.

"Why does he always get such special treatment?" Hawkbit whined.

"Well, maybe it has something to do with the fact that he is my baby brother, and his vision was pretty terrible. I am not going to make him work after he had a vision like that!" Hazel hissed.

"So what? Just because he has visions, he can get out of whatever he wants?!" Hawkbit replied angrily.

"I won't stand here and let you insult him like that!" Hazel shouted, defending his brother. He got closer to Hawkbit and started to extended his claws, obviously threatened him.

Seeing that there was tension between the two, Blackberry stepped in, trying to prevent a fight between them.

"All right, we've got digging to do, let's go!" Blackberry told Hawkbit as she got in between the two angry bucks. Hawkbit looked ready to attack anyone but he had to do it or else he would face Bigwig.

"Fine!" Hawkbit shouted and stormed off, leaving Hazel, Blackberry, and her crew.

"He will be fine. He just needs to blow off some steam. I'll check in on him later, but right now I've got to tell you something." Blackberry said as she and her crew left to go and dig.

"I hope so." Hazel thought, as he went outside to help with Blackberry's digging, and listen to what she had to say.

It was just Dandelion and Pipkin, because that Hawkbit had stormed off, and was not helping them now. While those two went somewhere else to work, Blackberry made it to the place she wanted to dig. Then she started to tell Hazel what Campion had told her

"Alright, so Campion told me that Vervain was forming another plan to try and catch you three." Blackberry told Hazel, worried that this plan might work.

"Did he say anything else about it?" Hazel asked as he working on a new secret escape run from the outside.

"Sadly, no. He left before he had a chance to…but Moss stayed, so when he gets back he will tell Campion." Blackberry replied as she helped him dig.

"Also, there seems to be a rebellion forming in Efrafa. It's a small group, but still!" Blackberry said with some excitement, knowing this could be a key to finally ending this cruel war.

"Well, that's great. I hope we can help them before it's too late." Hazel told her sadly.

Blackberry noticed the hint of sadness in his voice. She frowned.

"What's wrong? I thought you would be happy to hear this." Blackberry asked, worried that she might have done something wrong.

"I am. I am. It's just…why does everyone seem to have a problem with Fiver?!" Hazel shouted. He started to dig harder and faster, obviously blowing off some steam.

"I mean, he must be the sweetest rabbit I have ever known! All he does is help everyone as much as he can, always keeping everyone spirits up when something bad happens, and for some reason everyone just hates him!"

Hazel stopped digging and started looking like he was about to cry.

Seeing this was a very crucial thing for Hazel, Blackberry put a reassuring paw on his shoulder.

"Your brother is the sweetest thing. Why other rabbits hate him, I don't know, but what i do know is that it doesn't bother him. Do you know why, Hazel?" Blackberry asked.

Of course, Hazel shook his head.

"It's because he has such an amazing, loving older brother like you to protect him!" Blackberry said, reassuring Hazel.

He smiled.

"Thanks, Blackberry. I wouldn't know what to do without you." Hazel whispered, as he began digging again.

What Hazel and Blackberry didn't know was that Hawkbit was planning his revenge. Of course, he couldn't go after Hazel, so he chose the smaller and weaker brother, Fiver.

"Hmmm, now how can I get back at that little runt?" Hawkbit thought as walked around outside. Soon his thoughts were interrupted by overhearing a conversation. It was Hannah talking to Kehaar. So he hid and eavesdropped on their conversation.

"Yes, Kehaar, I can pretty much do anything with my spells!" Hannah said. Obviously, she was very irritated with the constant questions from her large bird friend.

"That's it! I will just trick Hannah to put some spell on Fiver!" Hawkbit thought with an evil grin. He went over to ask Hannah to help him with something.

"Hey, Hannah, can I ask you something?" Hawkbit asked, as he got close to the little mouse and sat in front of her.

"Yeah, sure. What is it you need?" the little mouse asked.

"Well, I was wondering if you could show me a spell or two." Hawkbit asked, trying to act all innocent for her.

"Well, sure here let m-" Hannah said, but she was cut off by Hawkbit.

"No!" Hawkbit shouted, making the little mouse jump a little by his sudden outburst.

"I mean, how about inside, in the Honeycomb. I just need to go grab something before we start." Hawkbit replied, as he left, going back inside with Hannah following him, and making sure Hazel wasn't around.

When they were inside sitting in the middle of the Honeycomb he told Hannah to wait while he went to Fiver's burrow.

"Hey! Hey, Fiver!" Hawkbit whispered, waking up the little seer, but trying not wake up Molly, who was asleep next to him.

"Huh, what? Oh, hello, Hawkbit." Fiver yawned as he rubbed his eyes, trying to stay quiet for Molly.

"Hello, Fiver. Um, Hazel wanted to know if you could help him with something out in the Honeycomb." Hawkbit lied.

"Oh, sure I can." Fiver whispered as he got up, careful not to disturb Molly.

"Come on." Hawkbit said, as he led Fiver back to the Honeycomb, where Hannah was waiting.

"Here, stay right there. I am going to go get Hazel." Hawkbit said, actually lying. Instead, he went to see Hannah, who was standing in the middle of the Honeycomb.

"All right, what kind of spell were you looking for?" Hannah asked completely unaware of what Hawkbit was actually doing.

"Anything, really." Hawkbit replied happily.

"Well, all right. I've got a pretty good one. Stand back, please." Hannah asked her rabbit companion as she started to concentrate on her spell.

Now that he saw Hannah had closed her eyes and started rubbed her paws, Hawkbit moved forward in his plan.

As she was chanting some words she pointed her small paw outwards. This was the moment. Hawkbit grabbed her paw and pointed it towards Fiver. Bolts of electricity shot out. She opened her eyes to see why her paw had moved, but, to her horror, all she saw was the bolts heading right for Fiver.

Fiver didn't see what was coming at him until it was too late. It hit him, shaking his body terribly. His fur started to burn in some places, and the next thing he knew, he was on the ground in tremendous amount of pain. He tried to scream but he couldn't, it was so unbearable.

Back with Hazel and Blackberry, they had just finished up digging the escape tunnel.

"Well, that was a lot of fun." Hazel joked, since he was covered in dirt.

Yep. It's hard, but someone's got to do it, and sadly it's us!" Blackberry laughed, as she started to shake the dirt off her body.

Soon their fun was stopped, as they saw bright lights coming from the warren. Then they saw Hannah running right toward them.

"Hazel! Hazel, please help, something terrible has happened!" Hannah screamed, trying to calm down.

"Hannah, calm down and tell me what happened." Hazel told the very nervous mouse.

"All right. Hawkbit came to me and asked me to do a spell for him. I said yes, then when we were in the Honeycomb, he left to go get something." Hannah panted, trying to stay as calm as possible.

"Wait, does this have something do with those strange flashes from the warren?" Blackberry asked, as she was watching the bright lights that were coming from the warren.

"Yes, yes, it is. Anyway, when I started to do my spell, Hawkbit grabbed my paw. I shot the bolts out of my paws, and when I opened my eyes, I had…had…had." Hannah couldn't finish her sentence. She was still shocked about what happened.

"What did you do?" Hazel asked, trying to calm her down so she could finish her sentence.

"I hit Fiver!" Hannah shouted, trying hard to stay calm.

Immediately, Hazel took off like a bullet, leaving Blackberry and Hannah to follow him back to the warren, knowing his brother was in trouble.

Hawkbit's face immediately went from being happy to being horrified. He wanted to hurt the little seer, not kill him. If he killed Fiver, then he would have a death warrant on him from Hazel.

Hazel soon arrived with Hannah. To his utter horror, he saw Fiver on the ground, shaking.

Hazel immediately bolted over, but was stopped by Bigwig.

"No, don't! He is still electric; if you touch him then you might be seriously injured as well." Bigwig grunted as he tried to hold his Chief back. Hazel thrashed around savagely. Soon the bright lights had gathered everyone from the warren into the Honeycomb.

Soon, Dandelion and Strawberry had to help Bigwig hold Hazel down. He was thrashing hard to get away from them, actually scratching Bigwig a little.

"No, let me go!" Hazel shouted as he tried to get up, but failed. Bigwig had pinned him down under his big body.

Molly had just arrived to see Fiver on the ground, shaking. She was about to go over and help him, but was stopped by Blackberry and Primrose, who knew she would get hurt if she went over to him.

"What's happening?" Molly shouted over the loud thundering noise.

"Hawkbit tricked Hannah into shooting him with some of her magic!" Blackberry shouted.

"Why would Hawkbit do something like this?" Molly shouted, getting very mad that someone would hurt Fiver for no reason.

"He was mad before because Fiver wasn't going to help out with the digging, so I guess he wanted some revenge or something." Blackberry answered her.

Then, when it seemed that the electricity had stopped, something else happened to Fiver. His whole body started to grow bigger, his small tail started to grow out and become larger and bushy. His small teeth turned into larger more sharper teeth. Soon a large cloud of smoke had formed around the little rabbit, and when it had disappeared, to everyone's shock he was a small red...

Fox!


	4. Chapter 4: Cure for a Fox? P1

Fiver just sat there in shock and pain. Since his whole body was electrified, some of his new fur was burnt. He stared down at his new, big, red paws. His new body was a lot bigger and stronger, but he was still in shock about what had just happened, as all of his friends looked at him in fear. Soon his big bushy red tail swayed in front of him. He yanked it in front of him, gasping. He was now one the deadliest predators know to rabbits, a fox.

Everyone was staying silent, still in shock about what had happened to the little seer. The three little kittens had hidden behind their mother, Primrose, who was standing in shock, with Molly and Blackberry. Hawkbit, of course, was trying his best to sneak out, knowing he wouldn't want to be anywhere near Hazel…but what he didn't notice was that Holly and Bigwig were following him. Soon Hazel spoke up, being the older brother and the chief of this warren; it was his duty to keep things calm and everyone safe.

"Fiver, it's all right. I am here." Hazel reassured his newly bigger brother, as he slowly walked up to him. Fiver was lot bigger than the rabbits, so his new body was crammed in the back of the Honeycomb, blocking off two entrances with.

Fiver didn't reply. The pain had rushed back to his body, and with a loud scream, scaring his older brother, Fiver started to sway. His eyes were starting to blink rapidly. He collapsed from the unbearable pain and landed on the ground, trapping Hazel underneath.

Soon Hazel had popped his upper body out, inhaling the air that was lost from him when Fiver had landed on him. Fiver was out cold from what Hazel could tell.

"Can I get some help, please?" Hazel asked the others as he tried to pull himself free, but no avail, since Fiver was now a lot heavier. With that said, Primrose and Blackberry came over to the stuck leader, both grasped a paw with their teeth and started to pull. All the does could hear was Hazel's grunting from being yanked forward.

"Hmm, I guess it runs in their family." Molly thought, letting out a little giggle, but no one really noticed. They were all too worried for Fiver and Hazel's sakes, as she was.

"Now, where is that Hawkbit?"

As if on cue, Hawkbit was thrown back into the middle of everyone by Bigwig and Holly. It seemed they had caught the mischievous little rabbit. Bigwig and Holly immediately went over to help Hazel out, leaving Molly to watch him. The pulling wasn't going very well. Obviously, it wasn't going to work, so they started to try and wake the big fox. In response he just mumbled, barely lifting his eye lids.

"What is wrong with you?!" Molly yelled at Hawkbit, who at first was scared of the sudden outburst, but soon replied back.

"Nothing. I didn't do anything. It was all Fiver's fault!" Hawkbit snapped.

"How is it Fiver's fault? He didn't do anything to you, and in return you hurt him!" Molly screamed, obviously frustrated with this idiotic rabbit.

"I don't think you should be talking to a buck like that!" Hawkbit yelled, getting in her face to try and scare her. But to his surprise, she stood her ground and stared angrily into his eyes.

"Ha, you are anything but a buck!" Molly insulted Hawkbit, and in return he did something he would regret. He struck Molly across the face, not using his claws, just his paw.

"Don't you ever say that to me!" Hawkbit said as he stood over the now confused and very pissed Molly.

Fiver saw what had happened to Molly and his eyes were filled with anger. He jumped to his feet, knocking over the others, who were helping him, and sprinted full force to tackle Hawkbit down with his new sharp claws. Hawkbit had just seen Fiver running at him, but it was too late. He was already on the ground trying to grasp air.

"Don't you ever touch her!" yelled Fiver, lifting up his paws, with the razor sharp claws extended to kill Hawkbit but was stopped when he saw everyone. They were frightened of him, once the sweet kind seer of Watership Down, now a monster. Soon he had gotten off of Hawkbit, but was ashamed to look at anyone, not even Hazel or Molly.

"I am sorry. I didn't mean it." Fiver whispered. He was ashamed for what he had done and tried to sprint out the warren to get away from his friends before they saw him break down in tears. Yet his escape didn't last very long, since he was a lot bigger than a rabbit, when he tried to exit through the main entrance soon he found himself stuck. His backend and his big bushy tail were trapped on one side and the rest on the other side. It was like meeting Molly all over again, but this time, to his horror, he was in the warren.

"No, not now, not here!" Fiver thought as he tried to pry himself free before anyone could see and make fun of him. Soon his struggling ended-he couldn't move and everyone would see him and laugh. He closed his eyes and started to cry.

Soon a small tear had been whipped away by a mysterious paw. Fiver opened his eyes and saw Hazel standing over him, with a small, happy smile. Fiver returned it by giving his older brother a big hug, but not too tight.

"Fiver, are you all right?" Hazel asked his younger brother.

"No, no I am not. All I am is a giant freak!" Fiver shouted, trying not to cry in front of Hazel. But it got the better of him and he buried his head into his older brother's chest, letting tears roll down.

"Ssh, it's all right, little Hrairoo." Hazel whispered.

Fiver was surprised. Hazel almost never called him by his Lapine name…that is, until now. But right now he didn't care. All he cared about was that he was safe with his brother.

"Fiver!" Molly shouted as she ran up to him, and gave him a nice long hug like Hazel had.

In return, Fiver left the safety of Hazel and licked her. But since he was bigger, he mostly licked all over her face, like a dog to his owner. Molly just giggled, like she always does.

"I am so glad you are all right! I was really worried." Molly told her boyfriend, who had let out a small smile.

Then it turned into a frown.

"Wait, how did you guys get outside? I am kind of stuck in the entrance." Fiver stated, trying hard not to blush in front of his brother, who wouldn't mind, knowing that he would be embarrassed as well.

"We used the escape tunnel. Hazel made it when you were asleep." Molly answered him.

"Is…um…is Hawkbit all right?" Fiver asked, still concerned that he might have hurt him when he had attacked him.

"It doesn't matter, he is a jerk Honestly, I wish you would have hurt him." Molly said angrily as she stared at her stuck friend.

"Well, I usually wouldn't agree, but what he did was way out of line!" Hazel shouted, actually scaring Fiver and Molly, but he was very frustrated that someone would target his younger brother.

"I've got to think up a punishment for him later." Hazel thought, but for now he had a bigger problem to deal with.

"Well first, if we can fix your body, then it should get you unstuck. I will go get Hannah." Hazel told them, as he ran back into the warren through the new tunnel. Now Fiver and Molly were all alone again.

"You know, you aren't that bad as a fox. I like it." Molly told him with a large smile.

"Thanks, but I think I would really prefer to be a rabbit again. That way, everyone won't fear me." Fiver stated sadly and lowered his head. Soon he felt two paws grasp the side of his head. It was Molly.

"They don't fear you, Fiver…or at least I don't." Molly said happily.

"Wait, you aren't afraid of me?" The fox asked.

"No, if anything, I like you even more." Molly answered, blushing.

Then, to Fiver's total shock, Molly gave him a light kiss on the lips. Fiver just stared at her in shock, but also happiness, since the most they had ever done before was lick each other's noses. But now they kissed. It was a light one, but still a kiss.

"I am sorry if I went a little bit too fast, it was just in the moment…" Molly pleaded, tried to reason with Fiver, thinking he was mad at her.

"No, no. It's all right. I love it." He reassured her happily, since now they had taken their love to a new level.

"You know after this, when you are unstuck, umm…maybe you want to go on a small date, like…um…in the woods?" Molly asked nervously, since she was new to the dating scene.

"Well, after all that's happened, I don't think Hazel would let me." Fiver sadly stated, trying not to disappoint Molly. But he knew Molly was sad to hear this.

"Well, maybe if I can convince him-then I would love to go with you."

As the two lovers talked with each other, what they didn't know was that Hazel was listening in on them, since he had already gotten Hannah. He didn't want to disrupt them, but now was the perfect time.

"Hey you two, I found Hannah." Hazel said, surprising the two lovers. He came up from the small opening with the little mouse, and then both of them stood with Molly in front of the fox.

"Alright, Hannah, how do we fix Fiver?" Hazel asked as he walked around examining his stuck brother, just in case.

"Well, I am sorry to say this, but I can't reverse the spell. The best we can do is just wait for it to end." the little mouse stated sadly.

"Well, when does it end, anyway? I don't want to be a fox forever!" Fiver pleaded with the little mouse, hoping for a good answer.

"I don't know when it will end. But at least it doesn't last forever." Hannah told the stuck fox.

"Alright, well, thanks anyway, Hannah. Now we've got to figure out how to get you out Fiver." Hazel, told him as he examined the fox. Molly just giggled, since this did remind her of the time her and Fiver met.

Fiver just sighed, knowing he would be able to get out of this one.

"Well, Fiver, you might not like this idea, but I think it can get you out!" Molly shouted with excitement, which confused the others and scared Fiver.

"Wait here. I will be right back!"

With that Molly left to the inside of warren where everyone else was, leaving Hazel and Hannah with Fiver.

After a time had passed, the whole warren came up with Molly, even Hawkbit. But he was being closely watched by Bigwig and Holly.

"Molly! Why did you bring everyone here?!" Fiver shouted, trying hard to cover himself up and feeling like dying of embarrassment.

"I am sorry Fiver, but this is the only way to get you out. And by the way, I don't see anyone here making fun of you." Molly pointed out. She was right. No one was making fun of him. Instead, they all looked determined to help the trapped fox.

"So, what is the situation, Hazel?" Bigwig asked his leader, as he walked over to Fiver, examining him just like Hazel had.

"Well, Fiver's body is jammed in the entrance. Hannah has told me that the spell won't wear off for who knows how long, so we have got to get him unstuck." Hazel told them all, as he walked back over to Fiver and sat next to him.

"Anyone got any ideas?"

Sadly, everyone was silent, other than one very excited doe, and her name was Molly. But first, she walked over to Fiver and whispered something in his ear. In return, he gave a small nod.

"Alright, so we can get him out like I did before with my friend when he got stuck back at the orchard." Molly stated, while Fiver blushed, remembering that moment.

In return, some of them let out little giggles, but soon stopped when Hazel gave them a look.

"So, what is the idea?" Hazel asked the excited doe.

"Well, we all form a large chain from the opposite side of Fiver, and we pull on his tail until he pops out!" Molly said with excitement, knowing she had figured out how to get him out. Fiver looked afraid, remembering how much pain he was in last time.

"Well, it's the only option we've got, I guess. So let's get started." Hazel told them all as they set off towards Fiver's back end, with his large bushy tail.

"This isn't going to be fun." Fiver thought, as he waited for the unavoidable pain.

Back at Efrafa, Campion had made it back to the burrow Moss and him shared, and waited for Moss to come back and tell him the story. When Moss got back, he immediately told him what had happened and what was said.

"All right, Campion, I overheard that Vervain is going to capture that new doe and use her as bait!" Moss whispered, obviously very angry, since he hated Vervain.

"Well, I guess I will need to go and warn Hazel about that before it's too late." Campion replied. But for now, he had to wait and hear about the other part, with Thorn and his family.

"So, what about Thorn and his family, what's the plan with that?"

"All right, so they think that with enough slaves, and the Watership Down rabbits helping, we can overthrow Woundwort and his army." Moss replied with a big smile, knowing that maybe this war could finally end.

"Now, I am waiting for the 'but' part." Campion said sadly, knowing that nothing like that would be easily accomplished.

"But they have no idea how they could contact Hazel and his group, and if they can even convince the others to help." Moss said, his expression turning into a small frown.

"Well, we can help get Hazel and his group. Now for the slaves…I am not so sure about that one."

"Yes, but for now we just got to focus on saving that one doe from the Efrafans and Vervain. We can help recruit the slaves later." Campion replied. He was about to leave, but was stopped by Moss.

"No, Campion. You can't go back out. It's too soon right now. You will have to wait." Moss told him as he stood in front of his friend, who just gave him a sad look. But he was right.

"If anything, we can go back and talk with Thorn and his family!"

Campion gave a small smile. At least he could have a fun conversation with the others. So they left for Thorn's den, or really, the prison den, to talk about his plan and just to make sure they were friends.

Back at Watership Down, Fiver wasn't faring very well trying to get unstuck from the entrance.

They had all formed a long chain, each a hold of each other's tails, and all linked up to Fiver's big bushy tail. They had just finished doing a hard, long pull, but failed to free Fiver and took a little breather.

The chain was in order: Hazel, Bigwig, Holly, Dandelion, Strawberry, Captain Broom, Molly, Primrose, Blackberry and last, Clover. The kits and Pipkin were in charge of watching Hawkbit so he wouldn't run off without his punishment.

"Come on, why isn't he out yet? My tail hurts. The poor thing is all stretched out!" Dandelion whined as he rubbed the base of his tail.

"Yours is stretched out? Mine is the worst!" Fiver shouted, since he had the biggest one and all of the force was on that.

"All right, one last try!" Hazel said as he clenched his teeth on the tip of the largest tail.

The others joined in as well, and all began to pull.

Fiver clenched his teeth and closed his eyes as his tail began to be pulled away from him. But he could feel his backend starting to move…yet his fur in the front began to bunch up, just like before when he was stuck.

Everyone started to groan. It was painful, very painful to be doing this, but to their surprise Fiver started to move a little. Now they began to pull harder, seeing that it was finally working. Finally, Fiver popped out, smashing into all of them. They rolled into a giant heap at the bottom.

"Thank you." Fiver cheered. He immediately got off of them so they could breathe again.

"Well, I am glad you are all right now. I just wish it didn't have to be so painful." Hazel chuckled as he got up from the heap and hopped over to his larger brother.

"I have a question, Hazel." Hannah said.

"Yes, Hannah?" Hazel replied.

"Why didn't you guys just expand the entrance, instead of pulling him out?" Hannah asked, making them all look very stupid.

Soon, Hazel smacked his paw into his face, realizing how easy that would have been, instead of pulling him out. And they would have to do that anyway, since Fiver couldn't stay inside. It would be way too crowded.

"Well, at least you are safe, Fiver," Hazel told him, as he gave his brother a nice warm hug and a smile.

"Now, can someone bring me Hawkbit?"

Soon Hawkbit had landed in front of Hazel, after being thrown by Bigwig. He was afraid to stare up at Hazel, knowing he was in so much trouble.

"Now, Hawkbit, for endangering my little brother's life, I have the perfect little punishment for you!" Hazel told him with a little evil smile, scaring Hawkbit.

"You get to be on digging duty with Blackberry for at least two seasons…and you get to be Fiver's personal helper!"

Hawkbit's mouth dropped like a rock. Digging for that long-his most hated thing-and being Fiver's slave! How could Hazel do this to him? Yet soon Hazel had gotten close enough that only Hawkbit could hear him.

"If you try anything to harm him again, or going around disrespecting him, me and Bigwig… no, wait, the whole warren, won't be held responsible for protecting him!" he hissed.

Hazel looked very serious so Hawkbit didn't say anything.

"All right, come on. Let's get digging!" Blackberry said, as they made their way back over to the main entrance to enlarge it, so Fiver could get out. When they started, it seemed that it had just started to get a little dark, so they didn't have much time.

After they had finished, Fiver could now leave the warren easily. He had to sleep outside, so Molly and Hazel stayed with him to keep him company. Fiver had curled up with both of them, since he was bigger and it was getting cold.

"It's nice out here…well, with you, Fiver." Molly stated, as she curled up into his soft, warm fur.

"Well, I am happy that you are here." Fiver said, as he pushed his face against hers, forgetting Hazel was there and starting to crush him by accident. That is, until he let out a little cry, getting the large fox's attention.

"Oh, I am so sorry Hazel! I honestly forgot you were there!" Fiver pleaded, as he got up before he really hurt his older brother.

"It's all right, I get that three's a crowd." Hazel laughed, as he got up to stretch.

Molly giggled and got up to do the same

Soon Molly had slowly walked over to Fiver and whispered something in his ear, then the two walked over to Hazel.

"Hazel, can I ask for a favor?" Fiver asked as he sat down in front of him and looked down, with Molly sitting down and trying to catch Fiver's large tail, like a game. .

"Sure, little brother. What is it?" he asked, as Fiver stared up at him with a smile.

"I was wondering if me and Molly could go out into the woods and go on a little date." Fiver replied, hoping his brother would say yes, while Molly pleaded with her paws.

"If we run into trouble, then it won't matter, since I am a large Fox and I will be able to protect Molly. But if we do, we will run straight home."

At first Hazel wasn't very keen on the idea, since a lot had happened to Fiver, and he wouldn't know what to do if he ever lost him. But Fiver's sad eyes soon got the better of him.

"Al; right, you two can go and have some fun!" Hazel eventually answered. Soon he was tackled to the ground by Fiver.

"Thank you. Thank you so much Hazel! You are the best brother ever!" Fiver shouted in excitement, as he got off of Hazel and ran off with Molly to go on their little date.

They stayed in sight of the Down and in range of the Orchard. But what they two lovers didn't know was that Hazel was following them, just making sure that nothing bad would happen to them.

As the two went searching in the woods they soon found a small waterfall. It was beautiful, with small sparkles inside of the crystal clear water. The plants all around were bright green, and the ground was nice and wet. It must have been because of the mist from the waterfall. It was just perfect for two.

Hazel had hidden in a nearby bush to make sure he wasn't seen, but able to keep an eye on them.

As they played around in the Water, Molly soon fell in. But she had done it on purpose. It was one of the many tricks she loved. When Fiver had run over to her to see if she was all right, to his surprise, he got splashed in the face with water.

"Hahaha! I got you wet!" Molly yelled, diving back under the water, while Fiver did his best to shake it off but in the end, it made him look like a giant puff ball.

Molly burst out laughing when she saw this. Then she swam over to the shallow end and waited for help to get out. Yet what Fiver didn't know was that it was another prank.

"Here give me your paw. I will get you out." the large fox told her. As he reached down and grabbed it, she pulled back with all her might and pulled him into the water. Soon he surfaced and started to paddle to keep himself afloat.

Molly was having the time of her life. It seems she a natural born swimmer, although usually rabbits don't swim.

"Hey, Molly, where did you learn to swim?" Fiver asked as he clung onto the side of the pool.

"I am not sure; all I know is that I love the water. It's so much fun!" she replied, as she dived under the water and resurfaced.

Fiver started to pull himself out. Even if he was a fox, he still hated the water. Slipping most of the time, and having some trouble getting out, he got stuck halfway.

"Um, Molly, if it wouldn't trouble you, can you help me get out?" Fiver pleaded, while blushing a little.

When Molly saw this, she giggled a little and swam over to help her stuck boyfriend. Soon she was underneath him.

"All right, I've got you!" Molly said as she began to push up on Fiver's back end.

Soon they managed to get him onto the mainland. He lay on the wet grass, trying to relax. Molly joined him.

As she got out, Fiver looked over to her. She was dripping wet…the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, but she was starting to shiver, so he left his fantasies and curled up around her to keep her warm, which didn't really help since he too was wet.

"I am so happy we met, Fiver." Molly quietly said, snuggling up against him.

"I am too. You are so different from most rabbits." Fiver said happily as he looked down at her. But Molly looked at him with an angry face.

"I am sorry! I didn't mean it like that!"

Then, to Fiver's relief, she let out a little laugh, showing she was joking.

"Well, I am glad that you are different too. I think your vision powers are really neat."

The two lovers lay there, trying to enjoy the peace and quiet of nature, but that soon stopped when they heard strange moan coming from a small bush nearby. Instantly, Fiver had gotten in front of Molly, baring his teeth, protecting the one he loved.

Then to their shock, but relief as well, Hazel had shown himself, standing with Fiver.

As they waited for it to reveal itself, everything was quiet. Then, all of sudden, a rabbit fell from the bushes. It was badly injured, with scratched all over its body, but the most horrifying thing was that its tail looked like it had been ripped off; leaving a trail of blood anywhere it went.

"Oh, no! Come on, we've got to help him!" Molly shouted, as she left the safety of Fiver and Hazel and ran over to examine the rabbit closer. Soon Hazel and Fiver had joined her see if the rabbit was alive. Luckily, he was.

"He is an Efrafan, that's for sure." Hazel pointed out as he looked over the bloody stump where the stranger's tail used to be.

"What is Efrafa, anyway?" Molly asked, since no one had ever told her who they were or why they hated Watership Down. The only time she had ever seen them was when they fought the Watershippers in the orchard.

"I will explain on the way, but first we gotta get this rabbit back to Blackberry. She can help him." Fiver said as he carefully lifted the injured rabbit on his back, since he could hold a lot more weight than a rabbit. Then he began to walk back with Hazel and Molly to the Down.

As the unconscious rabbit was being taken back to Watership Down, one thing ran through his head.

"Vervain, I am coming for you!"


	5. Chapter 5: Cure for a Fox? P2

It was dark in the woods. So dark the small group could barely kept their footing as they made their back to Watership Down. Fiver was in charge of carrying the injured rabbit, since he was the largest of the rabbits…and since, in fact, he wasn't one. Lucky for them that the spell hadn't worn off yet. Molly and Hazel were in charge of keeping the injured rabbit from falling off of Fiver as they moved across the very unfamiliar landscape.

Hazel was walking a little slower than Fiver and Molly, trying not to disrupt them, but also keep an eye on the new rabbit.

"Wow, he is a lot heavier than I thought!" Fiver whined, as he carried the large rabbit through some brambles that lay in the path.

"Here, let me carry him. I am strong them you." Molly teased him, nudging his shoulder as they walked.

"You wish, Molly." Fiver chuckled as he gave her a big smile. She smiled in return as well.

"What, you think you are stronger than me?" Molly joked as she walked beside him.

"I can prove it." Fiver mocked her, as he stuck his tongue at her. Soon the two started to mess with each other, just little friendly pushes, that way they wouldn't knock the unconscious rabbit off. Soon, the two lovers settled down with their foolish playing, and continued the task at hand.

"Hey, Fiver, can I ask you something?" The little doe asked her large companion.

"Yeah, sure. What's troubling you?" The large fox replied, very concerned that he might have done something wrong, since he was new this love stuff, just like her.

"What is Efrafa, and why do they hate you guys?" she asked.

In return, Fiver and Hazel both sighed, knowing what those monsters are and what they can be capable of. Fiver was the one who answered the question.

"Well, Molly, Efrafa is..." Fiver stopped. He really didn't want to talk about this, knowing she would be disgusted by it. Lucky for Fiver, Hazel stepped in to answer the curious doe's question.

"Efrafa is a living nightmare with a tyrant for a leader. His name is General Woundwort. He runs his whole warren with fear, and keeps all the rabbits as slaves, except the Owsla." He answered, which made Molly shudder in fear. But, luckily for her, Fiver was there, and she felt safe with him.

"That's awful! Now, why does he hate you guys?" Molly asked as she pressed up against Fiver's large body.

"He hates us because we live free in the hills. He wants to control us, make us part of his slaves and destroy the down, so the slaves won't get any hope of freedom. His three main targets are Bigwig, Fiver, and me." Hazel answered.

"All right, but why does he want you three anyway?" she asked, still curious on the subject.

"He wants me because I am the leader of Watership Down, he wants Bigwig because he is in charge of the Owsla, while my little brother…he wants him because of his visions and thinks he can just use them for himself. But Bigwig and I will do anything to keep Fiver safe." Hazel finished, with a little smile over his brother.

"Well good, now I can help keep him safe as well." She told Hazel.

"Thank you." Hazel stated with a large smile. But soon that smile was a frown, because they were facing a new problem. They were getting tired from the running and soon had to stop or walk, and the mysterious rabbit was bleeding badly.

"All right, Fiver, I need you to take the rabbit to Watership Down as fast as possible. At this rate he will die before we get back!" Hazel sighed, not wanted him to be alone, but he knew the other rabbit could die if they didn't act now. The two lovers glanced back at each other, worried that they might not see each other again.

"Don't worry, Fiver. I will watch her and keep her safe." He reassured his worried brother.

Fiver didn't want to leave her, but since he was a fox, he could run faster than all of them, and she was in good hands with his trustworthy brother.

"All right, as soon as I get to Watership Down and drop him off, I will come back!" Fiver replied, reassuring Hazel and giving Molly one last lick. Then he ran off as fast as possible, leaving the two to walk back with each other in silence.

"You really love your brother, don't you?" Molly said, breaking the silence as they walked.

"Yes. Yes I do!" Hazel answered her.

"Yet, sometimes, I just think..."

"What, what do you think?" Molly asked, as her curiosity got the best of her.

"Well, it's just hard to think about what might happen if anything ever bad happened to him." Hazel sadly stated.

"It's just; I know I won't be able to protect him forever." He stopped and started to think, forcing Molly to stop as well.

"No, you won't be able to protect him forever, but you can die trying!" Molly encouraged the upset leader, who in return gave her a nice smile.

"Thanks, Molly. I can see why Fiver fell for you." He said with a little chuckle. Soon they started to continue walking, but the fun really began now. Unknown to them, they were being followed by a very evil and wicked rabbit.

"Most of the warren would lay down their life for him!" The doe gladly pointed out.

"Most?" Hazel asked, with a confused look on his face.

"Except for that evil Hawkbit!" Molly said, trying her best not to get angry.

"He isn't evil, if anything, I think he is just jealous of Fiver." Hazel pointed out. Since he was the leader, he had to be fair about what he said.

"He thinks I give Fiver special treatment since he is my brother…but I do admit, I do from time to time."

"Yeah, but you are suppose to do that for family!" Molly shouted in anger.

Knowing she was upset, Hazel decided to leave her be so she could calm down, not wanting to accidentally get into a fight with her. What would Fiver say if he did? Lucky for them, the down was just beyond the tree line. They were almost home free, but now there was one more obstacle...

Vervain

Soon the two Watershippers were surrounded by the much stronger and larger Efrafan rabbits. Hazel had pushed Molly behind him, making sure they didn't come anywhere near her. Of course, being the scared rabbit he is, Vervain decided to stay behind his warriors.

"Ah, hello, Hazel." Vervain said with a large grin, knowing he had them in his trap.

"Hello, Vervain. Still as ugly as I remember." Hazel replied, mocking the wicked rabbit, and trying his best to keep an eye on the Efrafan warriors around him.

"Well, guess what, Fiver isn't with us, so you lucked out, you pathetic excuse for a rabbit!"

Molly stayed silent. She was trying to find an escape route, but all of them were covered by the slowly advancing warriors.

"Oh, what a shame. But I don't need him. What I need is that little doe back there." The black rabbit said, pointing at the small doe.

Both of them were very shocked to hear that. Molly wasn't important to the Efrafans.

"Well, then, you have to go through me first!" Hazel shouted, starting to clench Molly's fur with one of his free paws, making sure nothing could pull her away.

"I don't have to. They will." The wicked rabbit said, pointing his warriors forward.

"Don't worry, Molly. I won't let anything happen to you!" Hazel whispered to her as he readied for the battle. But she wasn't paying any attention, she was figuring out a way out. She did have a plan, but they had to wait for them to get closer.

Hazel tried his best to fight off the approaching Efrafans. He kicked one back with his hind legs and then he slammed into another with his head. Both fell to the ground, but sadly, he couldn't stop them all.

Soon they reached Molly and grabbed her, forcing her away from her Chief. But this was her plan, as soon as she was on the outside of the group. She rammed into the large rabbit that was holding her, knocking him onto the ground. Now they had an escape route.

"Ha, and who says does aren't strong?" Molly thought as she stood over the rabbit.

"Come on, Hazel!" She shouted to her friend as she ran for the Down. Lucky for Hazel, they were focusing on Molly, so he was free to run after her. Vervain was shocked to see that they had escaped them.

"Go after them, you fools!" Vervain yelled as his soldiers rushed past him to capture their escaping prisoners. Of course, Vervain was bringing up the rear, starting to think to himself:

"What if they get away? Then Woundwort will kill me!" He thought. He shuddered at the idea of his life being ended. He had this one chance to save himself. So, with that, he bolted forward, trying his best to recapture them.

"Wait, we can't go back to the Down!" Hazel shouted, which put a confused face on Molly. He started to turn their course towards the orchard.

"Why, can't we go back? It's safe there! Fiver is there, and they can't take on a fox!" Molly panted, as they both ran as fast as their feet could carry them. Hazel took up the rear, making sure the Efrafans couldn't get up to Molly.

"They don't know where the Down is, so if we lead them back, then they will discover the location and destroy it!" He shouted.

Molly understood, so the two kept running towards the Orchard, but since Molly was smaller she started to slow down, and Hazel was forced to slow down with her.

At this rate they would never make it the Orchard. The Efrafans would soon be upon them and take Molly. No! Hazel was in charge of her, and he wasn't going to let anything happen to her. The best option they had was when they ran right into a fallen tree, and they decided to hold their ground and fight.

"Well, it was nice knowing you, Hazel," Molly sadly said, knowing they couldn't take all of them. The two shared a nice hug, fearing that this is where the Efrafans will capture Molly and kill Hazel. The two faced the slowly advancing soldiers, and Hazel stood in front of her, waiting to lay down his life for hers.

"Just surrender, Hazel! No point in throwing your life away just for a little runt!" Vervain bargained for both of their lives, knowing twice the reward as he smiled evilly.

"No. She isn't just a runt, she is my friend." Hazel told him, giving Molly a light smile.

"Fine, then. Die, both of you!" Vervain shouted as his warriors advanced.

Hazel stayed right in front of Molly, showing he really did care for her and would fight till the end.

Hazel was finally pinned down under a large buck. He had killed at least three of the Efrafans before he was overpowered. Molly did her best, but being like Fiver, she didn't kill any of them.

Finally, Vervain had come up and pinned Molly, smiling very creepily at her, scaring the little doe.

Then something weird happened. They heard a large growling noise. The Efrafans look around trying to find what was making that noise, but Hazel and Molly knew what it really was.

When Vervain looked up from the small doe, his small nose was pressed up against a very large, mean, and angry snout. It was a fox. It was Fiver, who was standing on the large log.

Fiver was very, very angry. He bared his teeth, growling. Vervain was quivering in fear. He then slowly backed away with his guards, not letting one eye off the giant beast. Molly and Hazel were now free, so they ran behind the safety of the large Fox.

At first chance, of course, Vervain being the cowardly rabbit he is, he was gone like lightning, his soldiers running after him, not wanting to be killed either, not knowing it was Fiver.

Fiver soon relaxed, knowing the dangers were gone, and they were safe now. So he let his head fall down panting, but lucky for him Molly gave him a small kiss, which made him feel better.

"Well, good thing you showed up when you did, Fiver!" Hazel panted. Then, all of a sudden, he just collapsed to the ground, scaring Fiver and Molly. They ran over to check up on their chief, but lucky for them, he was just very tired. He had fallen unconscious from exhaustion.

"Don't worry, I will carry him." Fiver whispered as Molly helped put Hazel on his back. Soon Molly let out a large yawn.

"Here, hop on, Molly. I can carry you both." He said with a smile.

Seeing that she didn't really have any other choice, she agreed, climbed on his back, and fell asleep, as they finally made their way back to get a long deserved rest.

It was finally daytime in Efrafa. Most of the slaves were still asleep, along with most of the guards, other than the ones on sentry duty. But there was a captain who didn't get any sleep last night. He was Vervain, and he was pacing outside the General's main burrow, thinking about what the general might do when he tells him that the plan had failed.

"What if I just don't tell them?" Vervain thought, as he stopped pacing and just sat still, trying his best not to act nervous. It wasn't working very well.

"No, then I will be dead for sure! Yet, it's the best option I've got." With that, he left. All he would have to do is avoid the General, so he decided to hide in his burrow, hoping no would find him, especially the General.

Campion had heard of the failure of the mission, mostly because of Vervain's rambling in his sleep. At least his mind could be at peace, since the plan had failed, but he almost felt bad for the evil, black rabbit…that is, until he remembered what had happened to Larch. He soon left to go find Moss, who was sleeping in his burrow. Campion decided not to bother him, then he went to his own burrow to sleep as well. But, later in the day, they would go and put together Larch's memorial.

Back at Watership Down, Fiver was asleep with Molly on the soft grass. Sadly he couldn't go back inside since the spell still hadn't worn off and it would be way too crowded for both of them to sleep in a burrow together. He had already dropped off Hazel to Primrose, who had taken him to their shared burrow when they had gotten back.

Fiver let out a yawn, then opened one of his eyes to see that Molly was gone. He jumped to his feet, searching everywhere for her, thinking something bad had happened to her.

"Molly! Molly, where are you?" He called out, fearing the worse. Soon, to his relief, he actually got a reply.

"I am over here. My paw is stuck, that's all." She called out, waving her one free paw in the air. Fiver soon raced over to her and stopped by her stuck paw. Then, to his shock, he was splashed with dirt. Turns out her paw wasn't stuck, it was just another lovable prank.

"Ha ha, now you are dirty!" Molly giggled, as she stuck out her tongue at him. Then, to her surprise, she was lightly shoved to the ground with two large paws. Now her back was covered in dirt, just like Fiver.

"Ha, now you are dirty as well." Fiver laughed, giving her a small smile. Then, he had a perfect idea.

"Bet you can't catch me!" With that said Fiver was off like a rocket, running around the base of the tree, and of course, Molly accepted the challenge and had gotten up, shook off the dirt and went after him. She was actually pretty fast for such a small rabbit.

After five laps around the large tree, Fiver stopped in front of the entrance to catch a little break. But Molly hadn't, so, to her surprise, she smashed right into him, sending both down into the warren.

They soon tumbled into the Honeycomb. Molly had landed on top of Fiver, so the two enjoyed the view as they stared into each other's eyes, then stopped because they were being watched by Bigwig, which made them both blush a little out of embarrassment. Molly got off of Fiver so he could sit up.

"Sorry to interrupt you two lovers." Bigwig joked to them.

"Your guest from last night has been saved, thanks to you, and he said he would like to meet you." he told him as he moved over to one of open runs. Then, he realized why Fiver hadn't moved yet, he was too big to go through.

"Right forgot about that. Here, I will go and get him." With that said Bigwig was gone, leaving Molly and Fiver waiting anxiously to hear this rabbit's story.

"He probably just wants to thank you for saving him." Molly answered, giving him a small lick on his cheek to reassure him that everything was going to be all right.

Soon, Bigwig had come up with the new rabbit beside him. He looked a lot better than yesterday. He wasn't bleeding anymore, and he could walk. He was almost as tall as Bigwig, but he wasn't nearly as strong as him.

"Ah, you must be the fellow who saved my life yesterday." The mystery buck told Fiver, stretching his paw to shake the much larger one. Of course Molly giggled at this.

"Wait, you don't care if I am a fox? This doesn't scare you?" Fiver asked, instead of returning the shake.

"Oh, no. I have tangled with foxes before. Besides, your buddy here, Bigwig, told me what happened." He gestured over to the large Captain.

"Where are my manners? I am Sunflower."

"Well, I am Fiver. Nice to meet you, Sunflower." The large fox introduced himself. Then, he felt someone nudging him on his side. Realizing it was Molly doing it, he remembered what he had forgotten.

"Oh, yeah! This is Molly, my girlfriend." Fiver introduced her to Sunflower.

"Well, nice to meet you, Molly."

"I can see why you feel for her, she is very pretty!" He whispered to the large fox, but loud enough for Molly to hear. She started to blush from his sweet comment.

"Yes, she is very pretty, smart, helpful, and loving." Fiver told Molly, giving her a warm smile. They both gave each other another small kiss on the lips, forgetting all about Sunflower and Bigwig. After their kiss had ended, Molly had something on her mind.

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to your tail?" Molly asked Sunflower, trying her best not to act rude, but just curious.

At first Sunflower didn't answer her. He was a little bit distracted, remembering that he was now a deformed rabbit, instead of being a normal one.

"Well, let's just say I lost it because of Efrafa!" He growled, which made Molly shiver in fear.

"Hey, please don't scare her like that, Sunflower." Fiver told him as he pushed Molly behind him, obviously just being protective of her.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare her. It's just, I hate that place so much!" He yelled, slamming a paw to the ground, trying his best to control his anger.

"Especially Captain Vervain!" he added.

"All of us hate him as well, don't worry about that!" Bigwig laughed. But Sunflower didn't find it very amusing, so he immediately became quiet.

"Wait, you were in Efrafa? Why?" Molly asked, as she pushed her way back next to Fiver, trying to calm down the mad rabbit.

"I was a…um…slave, but not anymore! I escaped…well…with most of me, anyway." Sunflower sadly stated, seeing that his tail was now gone.

"Well, you are welcome to stay here as long as you want, Sunflower." Fiver happily said. Now they had another friend in the warren, and a good fighter.

"Well, thank you." He told them, smiling a little, since he was now part of such a wonderful and caring warren.

"Now, if you don't mind, I am going to go on a stroll."

"Are you sure? I mean, you're still injured." Molly protested, worrying he might get even more hurt.

"Yes. Don't worry, if I get into trouble, I can fight my way." He chuckled, as he moved slowly out of the Honeycomb to enjoy some air.

"Something is very odd about that rabbit." Bigwig thought, obviously not trusting him much. But right now he had other matters to look into, so he left it at that and went on his way, leaving those two love birds.

Then, all of sudden, Fiver heard a very faint rumbling. Staying close to Molly, he started to look around. Turns out it was her. She was hungry.

"That was me. Sorry. Can we go get something to eat?" She asked.

Of course Fiver could never say no to her.

"Yes, of course we can." Fiver chuckled, as he began to move towards the entrance.

"Carry me. I am dying of starvation." She joked, then laid down the ground acting as if she was really dying.

"All right, climb on." He told her, as he bent down to put her on his large back, both laughing as they left.

They soon reached outside. Hawkbit was working with Bigwig and Blackberry, digging out some new runs, and of course, grumbling nonstop, since he was now on digging duty ordered by Hazel.

Once Fiver had found a nice place to rest, he decided to turn the tables on his lover. He started to roll over on his back, his belly facing the air, on top of Molly. Molly soon got out from her captivity, and giggled at little, seeing how ridiculous Fiver looked. Then she just lay next to him, doing the same thing.

"Ow!" Molly exclaimed, making Fiver jump into his protective mode. Turns out she had gotten hit with dirt in the chest. The only one digging was the cruel prankster, Hawkbit.

It seems that Bigwig and Blackberry weren't there. They must have left for a few minutes, so he had thrown a paw full of dirt right over to the lovers. With a direct hit, he started to burst out laughing. That caught their attention, especially Fiver, who didn't look very happy.

"Stay here. I will be right back." He whispered to Molly, who was rubbing her chest.

Because of his laughing, Hawkbit hadn't even noticed the large fox come up and stare at him. Then he stopped, seeing how mad Fiver was.

"Oh, sorry, Fiver. I was…umm…digging…and I guess I threw it in the wrong place." Hawkbit tried to joke with him.

Before he could tell Hawkbit anything, he collapsed to the ground and started to shake and scream, which got most of the warren's attention, especially Molly and Hazel, who were already on the scene. Of course, the two immediately went after Hawkbit, thinking that he had done something stupid again.

After a few seconds had gone by, there was a large colorful cloud around Fiver. Once it had slowly disappeared, the large fox was gone. In its place was a small rabbit. It seemed that the spell had finally worn off.

"Fiver, you're back to normal!" Molly exclaimed, running over to her lover.

He was still very warm, with some burnt fur, but she didn't care, so once she was over by him, the two enjoyed a nice, romantic kiss.

What the Watership Down gang didn't know, was that Sunflower hadn't gone out just for a stroll around in the woods.

He was really going back to Efrafa to meet an old enemy of his, on a mission for revenge.

In Efrafa, Campion and Moss were outside working. They were trying to find a good place for Larch's memorial, and soon they found a perfect place right next to a small tree that was just starting to grow.

"There, a perfect place for Larch to rest. Just like this tree, he still had his whole life to look forward to." Campion said, trying to hold back the sadness in his voice.

"He would have had a nice life, but at least he got to enjoy the time he was alive." Moss told him, setting his paw on his shoulder as they stared at the tree. They had carved out Larch's name in the bark.

They stared at it for quite some time, just remembering all the good times they had with each other, both letting out sighs from time to time. It was getting late, so they started to turn in, but their fun had not ended just yet.

"What is this?" Vervain shouted, as he came up to the memorial, waiting for the two to answer him.

"This is Larch's memorial, not like you would care." Moss told him coldly, obviously still angry, since Larch's death was because of Vervain.

"No, I can't allow this." Vervain told them as he started for the small tree to break it.

"Well, you don't get a say in the matter!" Campion shouted, as he stood in front of the little tree, since it was unable to protect itself.

"Soldiers die. If they see this, then they might think we care for them. Now move!" He yelled trying to get by Captain Campion, who wasn't moving.

"Besides, he was just a worthless excuse for a rabbit, anyway!"

"He was more of a soldier then you will ever be!" Moss told him. He had joined Campion in front of the small tree.

"Yeah, and he is dead." He chuckled. That just made the two mad, since they had grown up with Larch ever since they were kittens.

"I should kill you right here!" Campion yelled. He had pinned down Vervain, readying to kill the weak and pathetic rabbit, but in return, Vervain was just smiling.

"No, don't, Campion. That's what he wants." Moss told his friend, trying to get him off of Vervain, who was still smiling at them.

"He was a loser. He should have been killed when he was a kit!" Vervain told them, which put Campion over the edge, and he was about to end the rabbit's life, not caring that the General would hear about this.

"Now, why can't I kill him, Captain Campion?" A mysterious voice asked them. All three of them looked, to see Sunflower standing in front of them.

"No! You died!" Vervain exclaimed.

"Is…is that really…really you?" Campion stuttered, as he shed a few tears of joy. Moss was too shocked to say anything but stare.

Turns out Sunflower wasn't his real name. It was...

Larch.


	6. Chapter 6: The Past

"Larch, how did you survive?!" Vervain questioned him, trying his best to get away. But Captain Campion had pinned him down.

"Well, funny you should ask, traitor!" He answered, baring his teeth, obviously threatening Vervain, who gulped.

"If you don't want to tell it, then that's all right." Campion told him, staring at the stump where Larch's tail had been.

Moss also looked a little heartbroken to see his old friend like this. But he just stayed silent and waited for the story.

"Oh, no, I can tell it. Plus, why not tell Vervain his last story?!" Larch told his friends, giving Vervain a nice and wicked smile, just as Vervain usually would give to his victims.

"Well, it went something like this..." He started as he drifted off into his memories of that awful patrol.

"After I slipped away from Campion, I saw my last glimpse of sunlight," Larch said. "Then everything went complete black. Turns out that I was knocked unconscious by smacking my head into something. Then, once I had awaked, I looked around to see that awful weasel asleep not far from me. But, lucky for me, I hadn't been killed...yet. So I tried to carefully move towards the small ray of sunlight. But then I remembered how bad my leg was because of that stupid beast, so I was forced to limp over. It was a very slow process."

"Not to be rude, but how does this explain the whole tail thing?" Moss pointed out, interrupting his story.

"I am getting to that, don't worry, Moss." Larch reassured him.

"Anyway, so I was slowly limping across the ground, trying my best not to make any sounds to wake the beast. I had almost reached the entrance, when to my utter horror; I heard a large growling noise from behind. I turned to see that the weasel had awaked! I knew I would never be able to outrun it, so I did the only thing I could. I wrapped my paws around a medium size rock and held on for dear life, closing my eyes, knowing I would be dead in a few seconds. Then, to my shock, I only felt a slight pain in my tail. Turns out, the weasel only bit down on it, and not my neck or body. I don't know why. It could have killed me, but thank Frith it didn't. So, it started to try and pull me away from the entrance, but I held on to the rock. My whole backend was being stretched away from me as I cried out in pain, gritting my teeth."

Larch soon decided to stop that part of the story and skipped over it, since he didn't want to recap what happened.

"So, how did you survive after that?" Campion asked.

Campion had gotten tired of holding Vervain down, so he let him stand, but he still had one firm paw placed on the back of his tail, like a cat would do to a mouse.

"If anything, you would have bled to death!"

"Well, you are partially right, Campion. I was bleeding badly." Larch answered, then he gave him a small smile, knowing he would love this next part.

"Turns out, I was saved by the Outsiders. They took me to their home and saved me!"

This news caught everyone's attention, especially Vervain.

"Wait; do you know where they are?" Vervain asked, trying to get away from Campion, but to no avail.

"Yes, I do." Larch answered him.

"This is perfect! You can tell us where they are, and then we can finally destroy them!" Vervain shouted with excitement. Larch frowned at this, since they did save him and they were very nice.

"Yeah, or I could just not tell you anything!" He shouted, baring his teeth at Vervain.

"What? No! You have a duty to Efrafa, and you are going to tell me where they are, or else!" Vervain threatened him, trying to get up in his face, but Campion was preventing him.

"Ha, what could you possibly do to me?" Larch asked as he stared deep into the cowardly rabbit's eyes.

"Moss, Campion, grab him now!" Vervain commanded, but they both ignored him.

"This is treason! Once the General knows about this, you will all be killed!"

Soon Vervain was shoved to the ground. Campion had had enough of his worthless threats.

"What, are you going to tell him yourself? As I recall, you were hiding from him." Moss reminded him.

"All right, run along, or else I will kill you!" Larch threatened; cueing Campion to let Vervain go.

As soon as Vervain was free, he bolted for his life back to the warren, leaving Larch, Moss, and Campion.

"I thought you wanted to kill him, Larch?" Moss asked, curious as to why he let him go so easily.

"Well I did. But if I killed him, then I wouldn't be any better than him." Larch sighed, but he soon found comfort from his two best friends.

"Well, if anything, I am just glad you are alive." Campion told him as they both smiled at each other. Feeling left out, Moss decided to tackle them both to the ground playfully, just like they did when they were kits.

After a little while, they sat up and shared a good long laugh.

But Campion's smile soon turned to a frown.

"You aren't staying, are you?" He asked Larch sadly.

"No. I am sorry, but I just can't live here anymore! Watership Down is my new home!"

"Please, come with me. There is no life here, only death!" He pleaded to his friends, not wanting them to suffer any longer.

"We would love to leave this place, more than anything in the world!" Moss answered, then sighed.

"Yet…we can't leave these slaves here. Not till they are all free."

Larch sighed, knowing he couldn't convince them. Then he gave them a small smile.

"At least you are trying to help them. I wish I could stay and help, but I just can't." He told them, letting a small tear roll down his cheek.

"Don't worry. We will see each other again, once Woundwort has been defeated!" Campion reassured him. They soon embraced one last hug.

"Alright. I have to go before I'm missed at Watership Down. Also…please don't get yourself killed!" Larch joked, and then he had disappeared into the woods, leaving his two best friends.

They two rabbits just sat there in silence staring at the little memorial that they had made for Larch.

"Come on, Moss. We have to go see how Thorn and his family are doing." Campion told him, putting a paw on his shoulder. In return, Moss gave him a nice smile, and they soon left for their friends' prisoner burrow.

Back at Watership Down, after Fiver's transformation, he was too exhausted to hop back to his burrow, so Hazel had carried him back to the bed that he shared with Molly.

After a couple of hours, Fiver let out a giant yawn and opened his eyes, only to be scared by Molly, who had was directly in his face. He jumped backwards in fright.

Molly just giggled at this, and went over to help him back on his feet. In return, he laughed too.

"Well, that is one way to wake someone up." Fiver chuckled as they both sat together.

"Yeah, well, now I am hungry. You want to go and get something to eat?" She asked him, pacing back and forth, obviously wanting to go now.

"Sure. I am kind of hungry as well." Fiver answered. With that said, they left their burrow for the honeycomb.

Once they were in the honeycomb, they looked around to see if they could find Bigwig or Hazel, because after what had happened to Fiver, they were forced to check in with either one of them if they wanted to go anywhere. Sadly, they were nowhere to be seen, so they were forced to wait.

Fiver decided to go and sit down while he waited. Molly had a different way to distract herself, she started to just jump up and down for fun.

"Hey, I just remembered something. Isn't Hawkbit your new helper?" Molly asked. "He is, isn't he? So why don't you just make him go get our food?"

"No. I don't want to bother him." He told her, trying to spare Hawkbit the pain of running to the farm and back just for them.

"Nonsense, I will go get him!" Molly stated, as she jumped out of the Honeycomb to go and find the lazy rabbit.

Fiver sighed, he was all alone again, and he really didn't want to bother Hawkbit, even if the other rabbit was responsible for hurting him.

"Hey, Fiver." Larch said, as he entered the Honeycomb.

"Oh, hello, Sunflower." Fiver replied, happy that he wasn't alone anymore.

Larch soon sat next Fiver and chuckled a little, confusing him.

"What's so funny?" The little seer asked, trying to figure out was so funny. Did he find something funny, or was it Fiver himself?

"It's just that I forgot that my name around here was Sunflower." Larch answered, confusing Fiver even more.

"My name isn't Sunflower…it's really Larch." He explained.

Fiver now understood why it was so funny.

"Wait, your name is Larch?!" Bigwig exclaimed, startling Larch and Fiver. Turns out that he had just walked in with Hazel, who was confused about why Bigwig would act like this.

Soon, Larch founded himself pinned to the wall by Bigwig, trying his best not to fight back, not want to accidently hurt Bigwig. Obviously, he had a good reason for this.

"Bigwig, what are you doing?!" Fiver yelled, surprised that Bigwig would act out like this, especially at someone brand new to Watership Down.

"Hazel, get Fiver away from him!" Bigwig told Hazel as he kept Larch pinned. Hazel didn't ask why. He immediately went into action, fearing that maybe this rabbit was targeting his brother, and forced Fiver behind him.

"Bigwig, why are you attacking him? Is he after Fiver?" Hazel asked, worried that his little brother might be in danger once again.

"No, but Larch is from Efrafa. Yet, what he didn't tell us is that he is a Captain there, not a slave like he said!" Bigwig exclaimed, shocking Fiver and Hazel.

"Why didn't I see it before? I knew you looked familiar!"

"Yes, I am a Captain from Efrafa." Larch sighed, knowing they would have figured it out sooner or later no matter what he said.

Hazel pushed Fiver back as far away from Larch as possible, making sure he was in no danger.

"But it's not what you think!" Larch said.

"What, that you were going back to Efrafa and telling them where we are?" Bigwig growled. "I should kill you right now!"

With that said, Bigwig let go of Larch and raised his right paw, readying to kill the rabbit.

"No, Bigwig, don't!" Fiver told him, running away from Hazel and protecting his new friend from death.

"Fiver, move! Now!" He yelled at the little seer.

Fiver didn't move. He knew Bigwig would never hurt him.

Bigwig soon sighed and sat his paw back down on the ground, knowing that Fiver would never move, since he did think every rabbit was good.

"Thank you Fiver. And you can see I am not for Efrafa anymore. They did this to me, like I said before!" Larch told them, pointing to his new stump for a tail.

"Why would I betray you? It's so peaceful here and everyone is so nice. It's so much better than Efrafa!"

"Bigwig, how do you know who he is?" Hazel asked, as Fiver went back over to sit next to his older brother.

"Well, it was when I snuck into Efrafa to save Primrose and Blackavar. I saw Captain Campion speaking to him and another rabbit. I think his name was Moss." He told them.

"That's why he looked so familiar."

"Well, I can understand why you were worried. But I am on your side. If I wasn't, I wouldn't even be here!" Larch said, confusing them.

"I went to Efrafa this morning, to prove that I wasn't dead. And of course that little Vervain wanted to know where Watership Down is…but, of course, I didn't tell him!"

"Well, I am sorry we overreacted, Larch." Hazel apologized also glaring at Bigwig.

Obviously this was a cue for him to apologize as well.

"Yeah, sorry." Bigwig replied, annoyed that he had to apologize for protecting them, even if it was a little overboard.

"Hey, Fiver, I couldn't find Hawkbit. Are Hazel and Bigwig back yet?" Molly called from the run.

"Oh, I guess you did…and you found Sunflower too."

"Sorry, Molly, but my real name is Larch." Larch told her.

"Well, alright, Larch. I mean, I like Sunflower better, but if you want to be Larch, that's cool." Molly joked as she hopped back and sat next to her lover.

"Why did you need Hawkbit anyway?" Hazel asked.

"Oh…well, I was going to get him and make him go and get us some food, since we couldn't find you two." Molly answered, still remembering that she was hungry.

"Wait, why don't you just go?" Larch asked, a little confused on why they needed someone else to get them food.

"It's because I don't want them to go anywhere, unless they're escorted by me or Bigwig." Hazel answered, as he stood next to them and sighed a little.

Hazel actually needed to do some things with Bigwig, but he saw that he would have to take them.

"Well since you can't find Hawkbit and you and Bigwig look busy enough, I guess I can take them to the Farm." Larch proposed.

"I guess its okay. They are hungry, anyway." Hazel chuckled. But he soon stopped and stared at Larch.

"Alright go. But you will not put them in any sort of danger, or threaten their lives in anyway, or else you will deal with me!" Hazel threatened him, making sure Larch understood the task at hand.

"Yes, I will be careful, and if there are any signs of danger, I will make sure they make it out safe." He reassured Hazel, who smiled in return, knowing that he could trust Larch with his baby brother and Molly.

With that said, Fiver and Molly led Larch to the farm to get some food, leaving Hazel and Bigwig in the honeycomb.

"Are you sure we can trust him?" Bigwig whispered, still suspicious of Larch, thinking he might just turn against them if he got the chance.

"I trust him. Bigwig, do you have trust issues?" Hazel joked as he went down another run from the Honeycomb.

"No! No, I don't!" Bigwig yelled back as he followed his leader down the run, hearing him laugh, since he found this so funny.

Back at Efrafa, Moss and Campion had been talking to Thorn and his family, and trying their best to discuss more on the issue with the slaves and their rebellion.

Thorn and his family were in their prison burrow with Campion and Moss, who were helping them fix the plan a little.

"Yes, I think it will work…but we will need Hazel and his rabbits!" Moss told them.

"We also need a lot of diggers, and strong ones as well."

"This will work! I snuck around and started talked to the other slaves. They're in on whatever we are going to do, since they hate it here too." Lily exclaimed, upsetting her Father.

"I told you not to put yourself in danger! What if you get caught?" Thorn lectured her. Of course, she didn't care, and just rolled her eyes.

"I wasn't going to get caught, dad. I am not a baby anymore!" she yelled at him.

In return, he sighed.

"You know, you should really listen to your father. He is just looking out for you." Campion whispered to her.

"I guess you're right. I am sorry, dad. It's just, I feel like you act as if I am still a kit." Lily apologized, giving her father a nice hug.

"Well, that's my job as a father. When you have a family of your own you will worry, just like your mother did." Thorn joked. Then he sighed as he remembered his mate and the good times they shared.

"Alright, I think we have planned enough. Now he just have to ask Hazel for his help and find those stronger diggers. Then we will be set, and can end Woundwort once and for all!" Moss told them, cueing for him and Campion to leave, since it looked like Thorn need to be alone with his family.

So, the two captains left Thorn and his family.

"Dad, are you alright?" Henry asked, worried that his father was upset.

"Yes, I am alright. I was just thinking about your mother." Thorn told them.

"You know you never did tell us the story about how our mother died, or how we lost our other sister," Willow said, hoping to hear a story.

"Well, I guess you are old enough to know." Thorn sighed, wishing he would never have to tell them.

"Alright, gather around."

Willow, Lily, and Henry gathered around their father, ready to listen to his story…

"Come on, Thorn, you can't be tired already!" Lucy called as the two ran off together.

"Lucy, I don't understand how you can run so fast and not get tired!" Thorn called after her, panting hard, and trying to keep up with his mate.

"Plus, shouldn't we be with the kits right now?"

"Hey, they're big enough to take care of themselves!" Lucy shouted back, waiting for him by a small tree in an open field.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. You were always the adventurous type, weren't you?" Thorn teased her as they met and kissed under the small tree.

"Ah, what do we have here?" A terrible voice called. They looked from each other to see that they were surrounded by soldiers.

"Well, we are a couple, stupid. But judging from your face, I doubt you could ever get a doe!" Lucy mocked him, standing up for herself.

The biggest one was pure black like utter darkness. He looked very strong and very mad.

"Well, I guess we have a little joker here!" The rabbit announced to his soldiers.

"Who are you?" Thorn asked as he stood next to his mate.

"I am Captain Woundwort, and you are coming with us to Efrafa!" He told them.

"Alright, gather them up, and let's go!"

"Ha, you are very funny if you think you can lay one paw on me!" Lucy announced, standing in a fighting position.

Of course Thorn stood next to her ready to fight to the end with the rabbit he loved.

"Fine then. I guess we can just kill you and leave it that." Woundwort told them coldly.

"Kill them! Kill both of them!"

With that said, the soldiers started their advance on the two.

The first soldier was very unlucky with his attack. As soon as he met Lucy and tried to hit her, his throat was ripped out and he lay dying on the ground. They didn't know that Lucy was a born fighter.

Soon the two lovers were forced away from each other. Thorn had killed another before he was pinned. The ones holding him down didn't kill him. They were forcing him to watch his mate slowly losing the battle.

She had already killed three, but she grew tired. Yet she still fought on for her mate and kits. Lucy let out a small, short scream as someone scratched her across the chest.

She slowly panted, trying to catch her breath, and hold off the enemy. But what she didn't know was that Woundwort had decided to join the fight and was sneaking up on her.

It felt like time had slowed down for Thorn as he screamed Lucy's name. But soon she was run through by three sharp, long claws which went into her chest. She fell to the ground, coughing up blood.

"No!" Thorn screamed as he watched her fall to the ground. He tried his his best to get free, but couldn't.

"Weak and pathetic!" Woundwort told Lucy, spitting on her body as he walked over to Thorn, who was breaking down into tears.

"Now, you die as well!" Woundwort told him, as he picked him up by the front of his fur on neck.

Thorn was silent. His body was filled with sadness, and then he remembered his kits, knowing he would have to stay alive for them.

"No, you die!" Thorn screamed, surprising Woundwort. With that said, Thorn ran his two front teeth right into Woundwort's left eye.

He screamed out in pain, and let go of Thorn, who crawled away as fast as possible. Lucky for Thorn, Woundwort's soldiers had to take him back to Efrafa. If they hadn't acted fast. he would have bled out and died.

Thorn made it over to his dying mate, crying over her body.

"Thorn, take care of the children." Lucy instructed him as she coughed up more blood, then she grasped his paw, staring into his eyes.

"I will. I won't let anything happen to them!" He reassured her.

"I love you so much!"

Sadly he felt his paw being released. She had died.

"No, you can't die!" Thorn screamed as he grasped her body, crying like a kit.

Sadly, she was dead. As soon as he stopped crying, he picked up her body and took her back to his Warren.

"I will kill you Woundwort! I promise!" Thorn thought as he slowly made his way back.

"So that's what happened to your mother." Thorn told them, finishing the story.

His kits just sat there in total silence…that is, until Lily had broken the silence with a question.

"So that's why we can fight so well?" she asked.

Her father wrapped his paws around her.

"Yes. I was never much of a fighter, anyway." He laughed, trying to break the sadness.

"She could kick my butt anytime of the day!"

"She sounded amazing Dad." Henry told him, crying a little.

"She was. So that's why I can't let anything happen to you guys. I will never break your mother's promise!" Thorn told them, as he made them get into a group hug and Willow cried in his chest. But he did feel better as he was surrounded by his loved ones.

"Hey that reminds me…what about the story of my sister?" Lily asked, as she pulled a little away from her father.

"Oh, that story. Yes, here, let me make sure I can remember." Their father joked...

Thorn was panting, as he ran with his children on his back and the smallest of the children in his mouth. The Efrafan patrol was right behind them. He soon stopped to take a breath.

Sadly, he knew they couldn't outrun them or fight them. His children could make it in Efrafa…all but the smallest one.

So he did the hardest thing a father could. He had to let her go, so he searched around until he saw a hollow log, small enough to put his daughter in.

He slowly let her go inside, setting her down in the log and covering her up with some old leaves, hoping the Efrafans wouldn't check the log.

"I love you, don't you ever forget that!" He whispered as he gave her one last small kiss. His kit wasn't even old enough to have her eyes open.

"Lucky for me, she didn't whine or cry, so they didn't find her, thank Frith…but then we were captured and taken away, and before I was out of sight, I saw a large badger searching the log." Thorn sighed, fearing that his daughter had been eaten.

"That's sounds terrible, dad. I am sorry you had to do that." Lily told him as he finished his story.

"What was her name?" Willow asked, since his father never had told them.

"Her name…her name was..." He stopped, letting out a large sigh, and then finished his sentence.

"Molly."


	7. Chapter 7: Love Works in Mysterious Ways

"Come on, Larch, hurry up!" Molly shouted. She was already at the base of the hill, waiting with Fiver.

"I am coming. Don't worry." He reassured the little doe, as he finally met up with the two.

"Sorry, but I am just so hungry right now." Molly tried to apologize, as she started to jump up and down impatiently.

"Since we can't go alone anymore, we need you!"

"Alright, alright, then let's go." Larch replied. But soon, he stopped in his tracks.

"Um, does anyone know the way?" He chuckled, since he was very unfamiliar with the area.

"Here, I know where a farm is. Follow me!" Fiver announced. Taking over, he led the other two rabbits.

As they walked along, Larch was paying special attention to the surrounding area, making sure there was no danger around, since he was trusted by Hazel to keep his little brother and Molly safe.

If Fiver returned with just one scratch, or just one hair missing, all the blame would be on him. He wouldn't necessarily get kicked out of Watership Down, but he would be on everyone's bad side. Maybe not Hawkbit's, but most.

If anything, he seemed to have grown very fond of the little seer. He was always so nice to everyone, making others laugh, putting other's happiness before his own…but sadly, he did get bullied, which Larch wasn't a big fan of.

Especially Hawkbit. It seemed that all of his rage was only focused on Fiver, but why would someone want to bully him? He had done nothing wrong. But now he wouldn't have to worry about it. Larch would watch over him with Hazel.

"Hey, Fiver, you know, you never did tell me the story of how you became that fox thing." Larch stated.

"No, you don't want to hear that. It's…umm…boring." Fiver told him. Trying to make up excuses, he turned his head away from Larch.

"Come on, it can't be that bad!" Larch reassured him. But it was really that bad.

"Well actually it was..." Fiver was cut off by Molly's sudden outburst.

"It was actually the funniest thing, especially the part where he got stuck in the main entrance!" Molly laughed, making Fiver stare at the ground, since that was the most embarrassing moment of it all.

"He got stuck?" Larch asked, seeing that Fiver was in fact blushing.

"Yep, the whole warr..." Molly was cut off by Fiver, who put his paws over her mouth.

"Nothing happened. Can we just continue on to the Farm?" Fiver pleaded, trying to change the subject.

"Alright, let's go" Larch agreed, seeing how embarrassed Fiver was about this.

"Hey, what did you do that for?" Molly complained once Fiver had released her, giving her lover a glare.

"Sorry, but it's embarrassing!" Fiver told her, as he rubbed up against her, trying to get her to relax.

"Alright. I can't stay mad at you." Molly apologized. Soon, the two rubbed up against each other. Then they started to play with each other, trying to shove one another to the ground.

Larch just laughed quietly as he watched the two rabbits starting to shove at each other playfully.

"This is so much better than Efrafa!" Larch thought, since he had never seen rabbits having any fun in Efrafa, since most of them were just slaves.

They soon arrived at the farm near one of the large stone walls, but they were forced to stop, Fiver had started to look for something along the wall, which confused Larch and Molly.

"Why did we stop, Fiver? I am hungry." Molly asked, coming up from behind and sitting down next to him.

"I can't seem to find the small opening in the wall." Fiver answered her, as he sat there staring, and then started looking along the wall again.

"Well, why do we need an opening? We can always use the main gate." Larch suggested to the little seer, who shook his head in protest.

"No, we can't." Fiver told him sadly.

"Why, not?" Molly whined, and he really couldn't blame her, as she was very hungry.

"We can't go in the main gate, because we will surely be spotted!" He protested. If they were spotted, they would almost definitely be killed by the man and his thunder stick.

"Well, then, what should we do?" Larch asked, as he stared at the large wall.

"I don't think we can jump over it!"

"We might be able to dig under the wall." Fiver suggested.

"Alright, let's do it!" Molly shouted, wanting to get to the food as fast as possible.

The trio moved along the wall until they found a weak spot. Then they began to dig, switching off whenever one of them got tired. Molly was the one who finished the small hole, and she immediately went to the garden and started to eat.

Fiver was the next to crawl under the large wall. He barely made it through the small opening. Turns out that when Molly was digging, she didn't make it large enough for them, but only enough space for herself.

So Larch was the last to come through. He had the most trouble. In fact, he had gotten stuck in the hole. Luckily for him, Fiver was there.

"Umm, can I get some help?" Larch whispered, trying to only get Fiver's attention, embarrassed enough that his whole backend was now trapped underground.

"Here, I got you. Don't worry." Fiver chuckled, as he leaned down and took Larch's right paw. Larch was in fact blushing, most embarrassed at having to be saved from this moment.

The little seer pulled back with all of his might, his back paws digging into the dirt as he used it for leverage, while Larch used his back paws against the dirt. Sadly, it looked like he would have to get Molly to help them. Now, that would be most embarrassing…but lucky for him, they wouldn't have to. Larch had popped free, landing on top of Fiver.

"Sorry, Fiver." Larch apologized as he got off of the little rabbit.

"Oh, no problem. Let's go eat!" Fiver stated, then ran over to join Molly at a half eaten head of lettuce.

"Don't have to tell me twice." Larch thought as he sat close to them, eating a carrot, but also keeping an eye out for any dangers.

While the group was eating and enjoying themselves with the nice, big, and juicy vegetables, Fiver forgot to tell Larch and Molly some crucial things about the farm, mostly of its inhabitants-a dog and cat.

Molly had stopped eating. She actually wanted to talk to Fiver in private, but Larch was right next to them, so she really didn't have a chance to.

"Umm…hey, Larch, can you go get me a flower?" Molly asked, trying to get him to leave for a minute.

"Why do you need a flower?" Fiver asked her, trying to see if something was wrong.

"Umm, my stomach hurts. I just wanted to eat a flower so it would calm down." Molly lied, trying to get Larch to leave…but her plan backfired.

"I will go get it!" Fiver shouted, and soon left through the small hole they had dug, leaving Molly. She sighed. She needed Fiver, not Larch.

"Alright, what's going on?" Larch questioned her, seeing the sad look on her face.

"I just wanted to talk to Fiver alone." She told him. "It's something personal."

"Well, when he comes back, I will let you alone." Larch told her, which made her smile.

"Thanks. I didn't mean to be rude about it." She apologized. Then, to her surprise, Larch hugged her.

"It's alright." He whispered.

"Hey!" A mysterious voice shouted.

It was Fiver. He had just seen the two hug each other, but he wasn't happy about it, and he soon came over to the two, looking very mad, and scaring the other two, since they have never seen the little seer like this.

"What do you think you were doing?" Fiver shouted, scaring Larch and Molly, and also confusing them.

"What?" Larch asked, staring down at the very mad little seer.

"I saw you moving on her!" Fiver shouted, shocking the two.

"Fiver, he wasn't doing anything! He just gave me a hug." Molly told him, trying to calm him down before he did something he would regret.

"No, I don't want to hear it!" He yelled, scaring her. Soon Larch had to intervene.

"Fiver, we weren't doing anything. All she wanted was to be alone with..."

"Yes, alone with you!" Fiver interrupted him.

"I can't believe this! We let you into our warren and this is how you repay us? This is how you repay me?!"

"Fiver, I didn't do anything!" Larch yelled, trying to keep his temper.

"He really didn't! I was just asking a favor of him!" Molly pleaded. But Fiver wasn't having any of it, and just ignored her.

"No, I don't want to hear you. I understand now that you love him more, don't you?!" Fiver screamed at her, making her cry.

"Fiver, stop! You are being mean!" Larch stated, trying to defend her.

"I can't believe I was so stupid!" Fiver shouted towards Molly. But this time, she had something to say.

"I hate you! I never want to see you again, Fiver!" With that, she left, leaving Larch and Fiver alone.

"Good job Fiver, you just lost the doe of your dreams." Larch told him angrily and then left as well to go comfort her, leaving Fiver all alone in the garden.

Fiver just sat there panting, and started to scratch at the ground, while he tried to think over what had just happened.

"What have I done?" Fiver thought to himself, as he started to shed a tear.

"I just gave up the only doe that would ever love me!"

He started to walked back to Watership Down, going through the main gate, not caring if he was seen crying as he went.

He decided that he wanted to take the long way around. It put him closer to the Efrafa patrols, but he just wanted to be alone to think.

"How could I make her cry? I am such a jerk!" He screamed, heartbroken.

"She must hate me now. Why shouldn't she?"

"She loves Larch now. But why would she love me anyway!"

"Maybe they were right. Maybe it was just a simple hug…and now I've lost her forever!" He stopped, smashed his paws into the ground, and started to cry into them.

"Why should I even go back home?! Everyone will hate me, anyway." He soon collapsed onto the ground and buried his head in the dirt.

Molly didn't even run that far. She was just outside the wall, with her face in her paws, crying.

Larch was forced to dig the hole a bit bigger so he could fit through and help her.

Soon he was there to comfort her. For now, he just held her, rocking back and forth trying to calm her down.

"Shhhh," Larch whispered, trying to stop her crying.

"Why did he yell at me? I thought he loved me!" Molly cried, as she lay in Larch's paws.

"He was just upset. He didn't mean anything he said." Larch told her, as he continued to rock her like a little kit.

"All of the fun we had together, sleeping, playing, eating with each other…It's all gone now, and it's because of my stupidity!" Molly cried.

Larch had had enough of this, and soon he grabbed her, pulling her towards him.

"Hey, you aren't stupid, and you shouldn't beat yourself up for it. If anything, I am the stupid one!" Larch reassured her, giving her a small smile.

Soon she had stopped crying enough to talk to him.

"I guess it was also our fault." She sniffed then looked towards the wall. Larch sighed, knowing she was right.

"I don't want to lose him! I love him."

"Well, you know what? You aren't going to lose him!" Larch told her, confusing her.

"Come on! Let's get you to back together!"

He grabbed her paw, and, to her surprise, they went away from the Farm, heading towards the woods.

"Shouldn't we get Fiver?" Molly shouted as she tried to keep up with Larch.

"No, he will be alright. We've got work to do!" He told her as they disappeared into the woods.

Sadly, Larch couldn't have been more wrong, since he hadn't checked on the little seer, or he would have known that he had already left.

Fiver had moved away from Watership Down's direction, and soon headed towards some random direction. He didn't want to be anywhere near Molly. He didn't want to hurt her anymore.

He just stayed in silence as he walked. Then he found that the sun was about to start setting, so he need some place to sleep for a bit.

Lucky for him, he had found a hollowed out hole, big enough for him to sleep in, and big enough to keep him safe because of the boulder above it.

As he watched the sun beginning to set, he thought to himself, remembering the good times he had had with Molly.

Especially the very first time they had met. Even if it was the most embarrassing thing in the world, when his eyes first fell on her, she was the prettiest doe he had ever seen.

He soon came to a conclusion.

"That's it! I will go and apologize! I love her and I won't give that up, even if I have to fight for it! Fiver shouted and jumped up. He accidentally smacked his head on the rock, causing him to yelp in pain…but that wasn't going to stop him.

Once he got his bearings back, he sprinted back to Watership Down, thinking that they were already there waiting for him.

Back at Watership Down, Hazel had gotten worried. The sun was setting, and Fiver, Larch, and Molly weren't back yet.

He was outside waiting at the very edge of the Down, staring in the direction of the Farm, hoping that they would come any second now.

Soon Bigwig had joined him, not to look for them, but mostly to gloat that he was right about Larch.

"See, I told you we couldn't trust him!" Bigwig yelled at his leader, who wasn't very amused by it.

"He probably took them to Efrafa and handed them in to Woundwort, for all we know!"

"I don't want to hear it, Bigwig!" Hazel replied, forcing Bigwig to be quiet.

"I knew I should have taken them instead of Larch. Why am I so stupid?" Hazel thought.

"What will I ever do without him?!" Hazel was trying hard not to cry but it soon became more difficult as time went on.

Soon, it had started to grown dark, and Fiver, Molly, and Larch were still nowhere to be seen, forcing Hazel to do something.

"Alright, I can't wait anymore! We have to go find them." Hazel announced.

"Go get Dandelion, Holly, and Strawberry. We may need a lot of rabbits if something has them…or worse."

"Why?" A mysterious voice asked. It came from the dark trees below the base of hill.

Once the figure had revealed itself, they saw that it was none other than Larch. He had come back to see if he could get Fiver to follow him, but was met by a very angrily looking Hazel.

"Larch, where have you been?!" Hazel shouted, surprising Larch by his anger.

"I was out with Molly. Now, where is Fiver?" Larch asked with a smile. Soon it disappeared, as he saw that Bigwig and Hazel looked confused.

"What! You mean he isn't with you?!" Hazel replied angrily, as he moved closer and closer to Larch.

"How could you lose my little brother?!" To Larch's surprise, Hazel lunged at him, but was stopped by Bigwig, who grabbed him and pinned him down.

"I am sorry Hazel. I thought he was here!" Larch told him, trying his best to defend himself and calm down the mad leader.

"Why would you leave him the first place?" Hazel growled, and glared at him from under Bigwig.

"There was a fight at the Farm! I had to go to Molly instead of Fiver, and the last place I saw him was in there. I thought he was going back home!" Larch told them.

"Wait, there was a fight between Fiver and Molly?" Hazel asked as he started to calm down.

"Yes, and it was my fault!" Fiver shouted. He was listening from the base of the hill, and decided that now was the best time to reveal himself.

"Fiver! I thought you were gone forever!" Hazel shouted. As soon as Bigwig had gotten off of him, he bolted towards his little brother and gave him a nice long hug.

"Please, don't ever, ever, scare me like that again!" Hazel told him. Fiver just nodded in agreement.

"Fiver, what happened at the Farm?"

"Me and Molly…we...we broke up!" Fiver stated sadly, as a tear rolled down his cheek.

"Aww, Fiver, I am so sorry." Hazel told him as he squeezed him tighter. Bigwig and Larch just let the two brothers enjoy one another as they stayed still in silence.

"Fiver, I know how it might have looked, but trust me. I can fix it!" Larch told him, but Hazel wasn't having any of it, for he held him tighter.

Fiver loved Molly. All he wanted was to have her back, even if it meant he had to trust this rabbit again, so he jumped out of Hazel's arms and slowly walked over to Larch.

"Fine. I want her back. I miss her." Fiver whispered, in return, Larch just gave a large grin.

"Alright, follow me and you will get her back!" Larch shouted in excitement as he ran back to the woods, but was stopped by Hazel and Bigwig.

"He isn't going anywhere with you!" Hazel told Larch, as Bigwig got in his way, preventing him from going anywhere.

"Please, Hazel! I love Molly!" Fiver told them as he stared at the two. Of course, they could never say no to those eyes.

"Fine, but I am coming with you." Hazel sighed.

Larch led the way through the dark forest. Bigwig was with Fiver, while Hazel was up ahead, talking to Larch.

"If this is a trap, then you are so dead!" Hazel hissed at him, showing he meant business.

Soon the darkness that was shrouding them was starting to light up. It started to get brighter and brighter until they were on the opposite side of a large Willow tree. It was bright inside.

"Fiver, I think it would be best if you entered first." Larch told him. At first, Hazel was a little skeptical, but soon he let him go.

Fiver pushed back the large branches that drooped overhead and entered, the whole place was lit up by small bugs with lights on them. As they moved around, Fiver noticed that he was under the giant willow, the flowers laid everywhere on the ground, forming a romantic setting.

Then Fiver's attention was caught by the tree. There was a large hole in the top, perfectly cut out so the moonlight could shine in, and in the middle of the small ray of light, was none other than Molly.

Fiver mouth dropped once he saw her. She was standing right under the light source. It made her fur shine like a star. She stared back him, and soon walked over to him.

"I am sorry Fiver. I was an idiot. I love you, not Larch. It was just an accident that you saw us like that!" Molly explained to him.

"Can you ever forgive me?"

"I don't have to, it was my fault anyway!" He told her. The two started to stare into each other's eyes.

"Fiver, I have been meaning to ask you this, but I could never find the right time till now." Molly told him, scaring him a little, and making him think that maybe their relationship might end here.

"Can I... Can I..." Molly stuttered. She was very nervous at the moment.

"Can I be your Mate?" She blurted out, shocking Fiver, whose mouth was quivering. Soon Molly started to get sad. Obviously, he was going to say no and all of the time was wasted building this place.

"Yes! Yes you can!" Fiver shouted in excitement. To Molly's surprise, he grabbed her and swung her around.

"I have been waiting to ask you myself. I love you, and I never want to leave you again!"

The two spun around and around as if they were dancing, shouting in excitement as they fell to the ground on some of the flowers that puffed up like an explosion of love.

Larch could hear the shouting from the two lovers. Obviously, it was a sign that his plan had worked and they were back together.

"Come on Hazel, Bigwig, let's go home. These two lovebirds need some time alone." Larch told them, hinting that they needed to leave the two some privacy.

"Thank you Larch! I can't believe I never trusted you!" Hazel told him.

"No, no it was my fault. I take the blame for that, but at least I fixed it." Larch replied with a small smile.


	8. Chapter 8: New Fighters

Hazel, Larch, and Bigwig had finally made it back to the Down. It was still nighttime, so there was still some time to sleep before Frith would rise again.

"Well, it still seems to be night, so I am off to bed." Bigwig yawned as he made his way down to the Honeycomb.

"He's right. Sleep sounds wonderful." Larch agreed. He started to walk after Bigwig, but soon stopped, noticing that Hazel wasn't following him.

Hazel just stood there, staring off in the direction of Fiver and Molly. He looked a little worried.

"Hazel, is something the matter?" Larch asked, seeing that his leader was a little distracted by something. Most likely it had something to do with his little brother.

"Are you sure it was safe to leave those two alone?" Hazel asked.

"What if the Efrafans find them? Or…an elil could kill and eat them!"

"They will be fine, Hazel. There's no need to worry." Larch reassured him.

"Don't you trust them? Plus, you need your sleep as well."

Hazel just sighed. He knew that Larch was right, and he couldn't just sit out there in the cold and dark night. Plus, it was true, he was a little tired.

"Alright, I will go to bed in a minute, mom." Hazel joked.

In return, Larch stuck his tongue out at him. Then he disappeared into the Down, leaving Hazel all alone.

Hazel still sat there, staring off for a couple more minutes, before he finally decided to go to his burrow and sleep.

As night continued, most of the Watership Down rabbits were asleep. Except for Hazel. He was having trouble staying asleep. It seemed that he was having a terrible nightmare.

Somehow he was now in Efrafa…but before Hazel could really do anything, he was forced to start running, as he was being pursued by Vervain and his soldiers.

He turned a corner and nearly fell off a ledge, but caught himself just in time. Now he was outside, and he was standing dangerously close to that cliff's edge.

"Great, now where am I?" Hazel thought as he looked down to see a flowing river.

"There he is! Grab him!" Vervain shouted. Turns out that whatever had put Hazel here had done the same for his pursuers.

Hazel was forced to keep running. He ran along the cliff's edge, but soon lost his footing, falling into the water below. He found himself back in Efrafa, but now he was surrounded by the soldiers.

Woundwort was smiling. He was sitting up on his own high rock, looking down at his new captive.

"Ah, Hazel. How lovely for you to join me!" Woundwort told him with a smile.

"Join you for what?!" Hazel shouted. But his question was soon answered. To his horror, Fiver and Molly were impaled to the wall by large, old, and yet, sharp spear-like sticks.

Fiver was moaning as blood slowly poured out of his newly open wounds.

"Why, for the death of your brother!" Woundwort laughed.

Hazel looked back over to his brother, and to his shock there was now a man standing with the evil rabbits. The man had a thunderstick pointed at his brother. Before Hazel could do anything, there was a loud bang, and everything went black.

He found himself screaming, scaring Primrose and the kittens. Soon Larch, Bigwig, and Holly were in his burrow, all worried that something had happened to him.

Hazel was panting hard as sweat trickled down his whole body. But he soon found comfort as his friends began to crowd around him.

"Hazel, what's wrong? Why did you scream?!" Primrose asked, worried for her mate.

"You scared us all awake!"

"I am sorry. I just had a terrible nightmare." Hazel explained to her as he tried to calm down.

"It must have been a really terrible nightmare, then." Bigwig told him.

"Yes, it was!" He replied. He soon started to shake a little with fear, but soon that fear disappeared as his mate held him, with his kittens sitting around him.

"Well, what happened?" Larch asked as he sat down next to him and helped with the comforting.

"Well, first off, I was running through Efrafa away from Vervain. Then for some reason, I turned a corner, then it turned into a cliff, I lost my footing, and fell down into it." Hazel explained to them.

"Well, no wonder you woke up screaming!" Holly exclaimed.

"No, that wasn't the reason." Hazel replied. Then he soon took a deep breath and started the story again.

"Then, somehow, I was back in Efrafa again. But this time, I was captured and Woundwort was there…but that wasn't the most horrifying part! The horrible part was that Fiver and Molly were impaled to the wall slowly dying, and then they were shot and killed!"

Hazel shut his eyes tight, trying not to remember that awful nightmare.

"That's awful. But you don't have to worry about it, Hazel. I am sure they are alright." Bigwig reassured him.

"Here, just to make sure, we will go get them!"

"Thank you, Bigwig. I am just so worried for the both of them." Hazel replied, as Primrose started to rock him back and forth like a little kitten.

With that said, Bigwig, Larch, and Holly left to go find the two little rabbits, for Hazel's sake. But it didn't take that long to find them. Turns out they were already back home, and the two groups collided in a giant heap right outside Hazel's burrow.

"Ow! That hurt!" Fiver stated, since he was at the bottom of the heap with Molly.

Hazel soon rushed out of his mate's arms. He ran over, yanked Fiver out from under the entangled group, and gave him a nice big hug.

"Well good to see you too, Hazel, but can I breathe now?" Fiver pleaded as he tried to grasp some air.

Hazel let go before he accidentally suffocated his little brother.

"Well, I am glad that you missed me, but I was only gone maybe an hour!" Fiver told him.

"I am sorry, but I worry sometimes." Hazel replied. Lucky for him, Fiver accepted the apology.

Once Fiver had gotten done with his little reunion, he helped his mate back to her feet and with the problem solved, everyone was heading back to bed.

"Wait, Fiver. You are going to sleep with me." Hazel told him.

"Alright, I guess. Can Molly sleep with us as well?" Fiver asked. Since they had just started to become true lovers, he wasn't very keen on leaving her.

"Yeah, sure. Come on." Hazel replied, giving Molly a nice smile. In return, she did the same.

"Thanks!" Fiver replied to him as the two moved into a small corner, trying not to take up too much room. Hazel was still worried for his brother, so he lay in front of the two, wrapping his body around them just for extra care, although Fiver and Molly really didn't mind.

Soon the small family had fallen fast asleep, especially Hazel. In the morning, he would tell Fiver about his nightmare.

Frith had started to rise over the hill. Fiver and Molly were the first ones to wake from their sleep, and so they decided to head outside to have some fun.

They left Hazel. Knowing what happened last night, they thought it was just best to do so. When he was well rested, he could join them in some fun.

They soon figured out that Bigwig was having his usual training exercise with Hawkbit, Dandelion, Strawberry, and Pipkin, but they just went on their way and stayed near the tree, while eating some of the grass and watched their funny routine.

As the two watched, Dandelion and Strawberry were starting to make funny faces behind their captain's back. It was becoming harder and harder not to laugh, but they didn't want to get the two pranksters in trouble.

Soon Larch had decided to come and joined the two little lovers in some nice weather and delicious grass.

"So, you guys never came back to the burrow." Larch told them, breaking the nice silence.

"Sorry about that, Hazel wanted us to sleep with him." Fiver answered as he bit down on another piece of grass and started to eat it.

"That's right, because of the nightmare he had!" Larch replied, also remembering how loud he could scream, now that was impressive. But this put a confused look on Fiver and Molly's faces as they turned and looked at each other, and then back at Larch.

"What nightmare?" Molly asked.

"What, you mean he didn't tell you yet?" He replied.

"He looked really tired, so we thought it was best not to wake him. What was the dream about anyway?"

"Oh, well, it was just about…umm…his kitten, being stolen by Efrafa. That's all." Larch lied to them.

"Well, I hope he is alright." Fiver told him as looked down the main entrance, worried for his older brother.

"I wouldn't dwell on it." Molly reassured him. Then she leaned in and gave him a nice kiss.

Larch felt a little uncomfortable, so he tried to look away as the two lovers kissed each other for just a little bit longer.

Larch soon stopped their kissing by asking a personal question.

"So did you guys... ummm... you know?" Larch asked. He began to rub his neck, trying not to sound like a pervert.

Molly just giggled a little, but, lucky for Larch, Fiver did answer the question.

"Yes. I am now going to be a father!" Fiver said excitedly, as he grabbed Molly and pulled her closer to him.

"Well, I am happy for both of you, and I am sure that Hazel is going to be very proud." He told them, then joined in their hug.

Their little moment of silence was now broken by a loud "Ow" sound from Hawkbit. Turns out that his training exercise wasn't going according to plan. He had lost his balance and fallen to the ground. Now he was pinned under a very large Bigwig.

"Alright, alright, I get it, Bigwig! Now can you please get off me?" Hawkbit begged his captain, as he tried to force his way back on to his feet.

"I have told you before, Hawkbit. Always keep your balance!" Bigwig shouted.

"What are they doing over there?" Molly asked, a little confused on why they were fighting with each other if they were friends.

"They're training to fight against Efrafa." Larch replied, as they continued to watch Bigwig bring down the hammer on the Owsla.

Bigwig was now in standing in front his so-called army, which was not really an army, since it only consisted of Hawkbit, Strawberry, and Dandelion. Pipkin was part of the regular training exercises, but he was much too young to help fight against Efrafans.

"Come on guys! Mess ups like that will get you killed out there!" Bigwig shouted. Then he continued on with his lecture.

"Hey, Fiver, Molly, follow me. I want to show how you really train an army." Larch bragged as he walked over to the small group, which was taking a beating from Bigwig's lectures.

"As for another thing..." Bigwig stopped yelling, seeing that Molly, Fiver, and Larch were heading over this way, and since the words he was using weren't the most polite thing to say around the smaller rabbits.

"Hello, you guys." Molly was the first to greeted Watership Down's so called "army".

"Hello, Molly. So is it true?" Dandelion asked.

"What's true?" The little doe replied, cocking her head.

"That you and Fiver going to have kittens soon!" Pipkin said with excitement.

"Oh, yes. Yes, we are." Molly told them as she put a paw on her stomach, indicating that she was pregnant.

"Well, good for you, guys." Bigwig congratulated them with a little smile, which was rare since he normally never smiles, since he is always serious about everything.

"If you don't mind me asking, was there some reason you guys came over?"

"Well, Larch wanted to ask if he could help you with your training." Fiver answered him.

"No, I think I've got it…but maybe you can help me, Fiver." Bigwig replied, shocking the members of the Owsla and the little seer as well, since he really wasn't a fighter of any sort. He knew some moves to defend himself, but that was it.

"Me? How can I help you? I am not a fighter." He protested.

It was true. The only time he could ever really fight someone was when his friends' or family's life depended on it. But he never liked showing those skills, since they could easily kill someone.

"Fiver, I know you are a fighter! I have seen what you can do, and it could easily turn the tide of a battle."

"No, Bigwig, I won't show you. They are far too dangerous!" He finished.

Bigwig sighed. He knew he couldn't get them this way, and if he tried to force Fiver, then he would have to meet up with Hazel…and that wasn't going to be fun.

"Um, Bigwig…this is Fiver you are talking about. The buck that can't even beat me." Hawkbit told him, actually making fun of the seer. But then he realized he had just made fun of himself as well.

"Hey, he could beat you over and over again!" Molly yelled at Hawkbit, trying to defend Fiver.

As Molly continued on with defending Fiver, the seer was in fact trying to get away before the situation got out of control. But it failed when he felt a pair of claws grab him by the scruff of the neck and pull him back to the group.

"If you think you are so tough, then why don't you fight Bigwig over here?" Hawkbit told Molly, as he pointed in Bigwig direction.

"Hey, this your fight Hawk..." Bigwig was interrupted by Molly's sudden outburst.

"Fine, then, I will! Come on, Bigwig! I will kick your butt next, Hawkbit!"

Hawkbit wasn't worried. He knew there was no way Bigwig would lose to a little doe like Molly…but then again, Bigwig really didn't have a chance to back down, since now before him was Molly in a fighting stance. If anything, why would he even want to fight a doe?

"Please, Bigwig, don't hurt her, especially the stomach area!" Fiver pleaded to the Owsla

captain. In return, Bigwig just nodded.

The group of rabbits gathered around the two fighters. Hawkbit was cheering Bigwig on, while Larch was giving Molly some little tips about fighting. But she really didn't need them… And, of course, Fiver ran to get Blackberry and Hazel just in case the fight got out of hand.

Once the fight was underway, Larch snuck over to Hawkbit to keep an eye on the trickster, since he was known to cheat at most things, and he already had a bad history with Molly.

Bigwig saw that Molly had turned her head to watch what Larch was doing, so he decided to take the advantage. With that, he charged at Molly, aiming more at her head and legs to try and knock her balance off, and keeping as far away from her stomach as possible, like he promised to Fiver.

Molly knew he was coming, but instead of getting ready, she just waited until he was clearly going to hit her. As soon as Bigwig shot his right paw out to catch her under her leg, she immediately jumped in the air. Then, as Bigwig looked up with wide eyes, she came down with full force, smashing into Bigwig, and pinning him down.

For such a small little doe, she knew how to fight very well.

Everyone stared in shock to see this. A little doe had taken down their captain of Owsla in one move. Even Hazel, Fiver, and Blackberry saw and were shocked at what had happened.

"Impossible, impossible! Go again!" Hawkbit shouted, starting to get scared that he might be forced to go up against Molly.

So the two faced each other in a ready stance, while Larch, Hazel, Blackberry, and especially, Fiver of course, cheered for the little doe.

"Alright, Molly, now you are going down. I was just going easy on you!" Bigwig roared, seeing that she was making a fool out of him.

This time, Bigwig waited, and Molly charged full force. Of course, he soon used his right paw again to try and get her to the ground, thus pinning her down with his front paws. But to his shock, she actually grabbed onto his swiping paw. Then, as she ran past, she shot her back legs up, sending herself flying upside down into the air with the captain, and then smashed him down into the hard dirt as she gently landed on her paws, declaring herself the winner.

Blackberry was a little concerned for that type of damage, but when she went to help Bigwig he was alright. In fact, other than just a sore neck he was fine…but his pride wasn't.

Fiver and Larch had already begun to congratulate Molly on her new victory. Everyone was shocked that such a small and even pregnant doe could beat Bigwig like that, especially Hawkbit, who was very afraid now.

Once Bigwig was up and ready to move, he went over to Molly and her friends to ask her something very important.

"You truly are a great fighter, Molly. I would be honored for you join my Owsla!" Bigwig told her, seeing that learning those types of moves could easily destroy Woundwort.

Molly was speechless. She was now the very first doe in the Watership Down Owsla.

"Molly, where did you learn those moves? If you don't mind my questioning?"

"I'm not even sure. It just felt like I knew what to do!" she answered.

She was far too young to remember anything about her mother, but it seems that she had inherited all of the fighting skills from her.

"So, Hawkbit, I won. A deal is a deal. Come, fight me!" Molly demanded. But of course, that sly rabbit had different plans.

"I can't fight you. You're a doe and I wouldn't want to hurt you." He replied, as he started to leave.

"Oh, no, you don't!" Bigwig told him and grabbed him by an ear, pulled him back towards Molly and the group.

"You aren't going anywhere, my son. You took the challenge. Now you do it!"

"No. She is a doe and I would easily hurt her, since she is so weak!" He told him, trying to escape from the fight. But this time, he didn't get a chance to leave, seeing that his path was blocked by a very upset Bigwig and Larch.

This angered Molly, but before she had the chance to do something she might really regret, Fiver stepped in. He had grown tired of Hawkbit, his jokes, and how he mocked his mate.

Fiver pushed his way in front of Bigwig, confusing Hawkbit.

"Well, if you want to fight me instead of your weak and pat…" Hawkbit's words were cut off when he unexpectedly got a nice punch in the face, knocking him to the ground. Soon he looked up, and as he held his jaw, he saw that Fiver was the one who had delivered the blow.

"I am tired of you insulting my mate. Now you will fight me!" He said angrily, as he gritted his teeth and got into a fighting stance, waiting for Hawkbit to respond.

"Fiver are you sure ab..." Molly was cut off by Hawkbit before she could do anything to pull her mate out of this.

"Fine, you little runt. You want some, I will give you some!" He shouted. Then, surprisingly, he charged at the little seer.

Of course, Hazel and others immediately tried to jump in and help defend Fiver. But he waved them off, showing that he wasn't that worried about this little fight for some reason.

When Hawkbit was close enough, he lunged at Fiver. But the little seer completely ducked under Hawkbit's body, and shot three of his small claws into the fighter, leaving three long scratches from his neck to his stomach.

"Hazel, did you see what he just did?" Larch hissed to the red rabbit. Hazel just ignored him and continued to watch the fight between his brother and Hawkbit.

As soon as Hawkbit landed, he checked his wounds. They weren't that deep, but they still stung a little, and this just fueled his rage at the little seer.

"Alright, you wanna play like that? Fine!" Hawkbit growled, then started to run again at Fiver, baring his teeth as he went.

Hawkbit tried to lung again, but this time at an angle, pointing downwards. But as soon as it looked like Hawkbit was going to make contact, Fiver dived forward, then jumped like Molly had done before, taking his hind legs and kicked the Hawkbit's back, sending him head first into the ground, sliding in the dirt.

Everyone stood in shock. First Molly had beaten Bigwig in a battle, and now Fiver was beating Hawkbit, who was a lot bigger and strong then the little rabbit.

Once Fiver was back on the ground, he looked over to see that Hawkbit wasn't moving. Of course, because of his good nature, he worried that he might have really hurt him. He went over to go and check up on him, but as soon as he got close enough Hawkbit struck. He swiped his claws right across Fiver's face, leaving three deep, deep scratches.

The others, especially Hazel, were about to jump in and stop this, but Fiver kept going, even with his new wounds. Hawkbit was now up again, with newly blood stained paws. Everyone could see that he looked ready to kill the little seer. It was like he had gone crazy.

This time, both of the rabbits charged full force at each other. But just before they collided, Fiver slid down between Hawkbit's legs, grabbed him by his chest fur and immediately pulled him to the ground. Then, once Fiver was back up on his feet, he swung around one of his knees, aiming towards Hawkbit's vulnerable neck. Just before he struck, he stopped and let go of the scared buck.

"I told you, Hawkbit. My moves can kill...easily!" Fiver told him coldly. Then he turned and walked back over to his friends. Most of them were shocked that such a little rabbit could do such damage to another. But of course, Hazel was just proud of his brother, since it looked like he had learned to control his fighting capabilities.

"Fiver, I... I..." Larch was speechless. He really didn't know what he had just witnessed.

"Alright, come on. Let me get that checked out for you, Fiver." Blackberry told him. She didn't want that wound getting infected, and soon led him away with Larch and Molly.

"We will be down in a second, Fiver." Hazel replied as he and Bigwig headed over to Hawkbit, who was still laying on the ground, thinking over what had just happened.

"Alright, Hawkbit, come along. You've still got digging to do!" Bigwig demanded with a smirk.

"This is so messed up! Didn't you see what he did to me?" Hawkbit screamed, showing off his injuries.

"Yes, and I saw you attack him as well. Let me remind you that next time you do something like that, I won't let you off so easily!" Hazel hissed at him, and then left to go see how his little brother was doing, and to tell him about the nightmare he had last night.

Bigwig stayed and tended to Hawkbit, watching him as he left to go find some place to start digging, grumbling all the way.


	9. Chapter 9: Hawkbit's disappearance

"Stupid Fiver and his stupid mate!" Hawkbit griped. He had gotten lucky-since Blackberry was helping out with Fiver, so he had gotten out of digging for the day and now all he wanted to do was rest.

He still needed to get his wounds patched up, but was forced to wait, while Blackberry tended to Fiver.

"I don't see why he gets such special treatment!" He continued on.

"He is just useless, but everyone praises him anyway."

Hawkbit sighed. He had made it back to his burrow, only to find that his mate, Clover, was gone, probably helping out with Fiver.

So he decided to just lie in his bed, thinking over how to get back at the little runt. But all the ideas he came up with just ended with him getting in more trouble.

"Great, so I really can't do anything to him, and if I do, I'll get in trouble!" He shouted, slamming his head on the soft grass he was resting on, then letting out a loud groan.

"Why would you want to do anything to him anyway?" A mysterious voice asked.

Hawkbit looked up to see his best friend standing in the entrance to the burrow. It was Dandelion, and he didn't look very pleased.

"Well...because..." He answered, frowning at him.

Dandelion just sighed, and walked into Hawkbit's burrow. Seeing that his friend needed some comfort, he decided to lie down next to him.

"Please tell me, Hawkbit. Why do you hate Fiver so much?" Dandelion continued, but sadly, he didn't get a response.

"Hawkbit, please, you have to tell me so I can help you!"

Hawkbit still ignored his friend, looking down at his own paws.

"If you keep this up then everyone on the Down will hate you. Is that really what you want?"

There was no reply, only silence.

Dandelion sighed. Obviously, he wasn't going to get an answer this way.

"Fine then, if you don't want my help, then that's your choice!" Dandelion said. Fed up with Hawkbit's rude behavior, he started to leave.

"I am jealous of him, okay. I am jealous!" He finally answered, stopping his best friend before he left.

"See? Was that so hard? Now, tell me why you are so jealous of him." Dandelion replied.

"It's just that...I do stuff around the Down, more than Fiver!" Hawkbit shouted.

"And I do mostly good things, but Hazel and Bigwig only see the bad things I do!" He continued.

"For some reason they only care about Fiver. They praise him like he was El-Ahrairah himself!"

Soon, he finally calmed back down.

"Hawkbit, you can never beat Fiver in a contest like that!" Dandelion told him.

"Thanks. You know, I thought you were here to cheer me up!" He replied.

"You didn't let me finish."

"It's Hazel's little brother. Of course they care about him more…but you don't know what he has been through in his life."

"Like his mother dying to the white blindness…not to mention, while he was still at a young age, his father and others siblings hated him…but luckily, he had Hazel to save him."

"So the reason everyone watches out for Fiver isn't because they love him more, it's because they can't risk losing him. Especially Hazel." Dandelion finally finished, hoping he had gotten through to his friend.

Hawkbit just sighed again.

"It just feels like no one would really care if I was just gone." Hawkbit told him, letting his face hit the soft grass again.

Dandelion didn't say anything. He just stayed with his friend, who really needed some comfort and love right now.

Dandelion closed his eyes; he too was feeling a little tired, just like his friend.

Turns out Dandelion had fallen asleep, and when he awoke Hawkbit was gone, hopefully to apologize to Fiver.

"Well, I should find him before something else happens." He thought, getting up from the very comfortable bed.

Dandelion decided to first check in Blackberry's burrow to see how Fiver and Molly were doing, and to see if Hawkbit was there. When he arrived, he saw that Hazel and Larch were guarding the front entrance, most likely to keep Hawkbit away from them.

"Hello, Dandelion." Hazel greeted him.

"Hi, Hazel. I was wondering if I could go and talk to Fiver." He replied.

Hazel nodded and let him inside. He saw that Fiver and Molly were awake and talking to Blackberry, but stopped when they saw him standing in the entrance.

Fiver was looking a lot better now that his new wounds were patched up. Luckily, the three claw marks missed his eyes, but for now he was forced to get regular checkups with Blackberry to make sure his new wounds didn't get infected.

"Hello, Dandelion!" Molly shouted, obviously happy to see another one of her friends.

Dandelion just laughed a little and greeted her with a little nod.

"Hello, Fiver. I see you are doing better with those wounds." Dandelion pointed out, hoping Fiver wouldn't be too mad at Hawkbit for that.

"I really am sorry that Hawkbit did that to you," he tried to apologize, but Fiver just shushed him.

"It's not your fault, and I honestly don't blame Hawkbit for it either. If anything, I blame myself." He replied with a smile, reassuring Dandelion that he didn't need to worry about it.

"I let my emotions get in the way. Sure, I hate how he calls my mate names, but that's no reason to lash out like I did."

"I never could understand why he was so nice to everyone. Eventually it could get him killed, but I guess that's why Hazel and everyone else love him so much." Dandelion thought, but he still needed to talk to Fiver.

"Hey, Fiver? I was wondering if I could talk to you." He asked as he lay down next to the two love birds.

"Alright, what is it?" The little seer replied.

"Well…I was kinda hoping we could speak privately."

"Come on, Molly; let's go have some fun outside while they talk." Blackberry told her, as she headed outside the burrow.

Molly wasn't very keen on leaving Fiver, but he did want some privacy, and she was getting cooped up in the burrow. So she left Fiver with a kiss and followed her friend outside to a run that led to the Honeycomb, laughing all the way.

Larch decided to go as well and have fun with the two does, mostly to keep an eye on Molly for Fiver's sake…but Hazel didn't move. Obviously, he was still watching over his little brother.

"Don't mind him, he is just worried that Hawkbit might come in and do something to me, but I think he is just being a little paranoid." Fiver explained to his friend.

"I heard that, Fiver." Hazel joked with him.

"I know. You were supposed to." Fiver replied, sticking his tongue out at him, making Hazel laugh a little.

"Don't make me come in there, little brother." Hazel continued, seeing that he was making his brother laugh.

"Sure you will, Hazel-Rah." Fiver replied, both trying to contain themselves from their little fun argument.

"I am so glad Fiver has a loving older brother like that," Dandelion thought as he watched the two brothers laughing and pretending to get mad at each other.

Once they had started to calmed back down, Dandelion was able to ask his question.

"Well, that was kinda what I wanted to talk to you about. I've figured out why Hawkbit hates you so much, Fiver." Dandelion told him.

Immediately after this was said, Hazel came in and lay down next to his little brother with a very serious face.

"Um…Hazel? Dandelion wanted to talk to me alone." Fiver told him, trying to gesture for him to leave.

"Fiver, I need to know as well. I can't risk you getting hurt anymore!" He yelled. But without intending to, he hurt Fiver's feelings with that sudden outburst.

"I am sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you, but right now I really need to know you are safe at any given time." Hazel apologized.

Fiver being one of the nicest rabbits on Watership Down, it didn't take Hazel too long for his apology to be accepted.

"Alright, Hazel, but please don't overreacted to what is said." He told him. Luckily, Hazel nodded in agreement.

"Alright, I was talking to Hawkbit about you, Fiver." Dandelion told them.

"What did he say about him?!" Hazel demanded.

"Hazel, please, you said you wouldn't do this." Fiver pleaded to his older brother.

Hazel sighed, knowing Fiver was right. He calmed back down so Dandelion could finish.

"I am sorry, Dandelion. Go on." Hazel apologized.

"Well, I was trying to figure out why Hawkbit hated you so much, Fiver. Turns out he is jealous of you!" Dandelion told him, shocking Fiver.

"Why would he be jealous of me?" The little seer asked.

"Well, he thinks that no one would care if he just disappeared forever…he thinks no one would miss him." Dandelion answered.

"That's not true. I care about him!" Fiver replied.

"Sure, we have had our fights." He said, referring to his new wounds. "But, in the end, I would never hate him!"

"He doesn't believe that. He thinks that everyone would be better off if he was gone…and, sadly, I think that's what he did!" Dandelion exclaimed.

"Wait, what do you mean, he did?" Hazel asked, a little worried.

"I went to go talk to him earlier today. I fell asleep, and when I woke up, he was gone."

"I really hope he hasn't done anything foolish." Hazel thought, since Hawkbit wasn't the smartest rabbit at the down.

"Don't worry, Dandelion, we will start looking for him right now." Fiver reassured his friend, along with a warm smile.

"Well, we should check inside the warren first. He could just be hiding somewhere." Dandelion suggested.

Hazel and Fiver nodded in agreement. So, without wasting any time, the group made their way to the Honeycomb.

When they arrived, they found Bigwig, Holly, and Larch talking amongst each other, probably about some combat moves or new types of training to introduce to the Owsla. Larch was constantly glancing over to Molly, showing that he was keeping an eye on her like he had told Fiver he would. She was with Blackberry, Primrose, and Clover. All four of them were talking to each other, but when Molly saw her mate, she immediately jumped over to him, obviously very excited to tell him something.

"Fiver, I am so happy to see you! Also, you're just in time! We were actually talking about you." Molly told him, jumping up and down with excitement.

"Happy to see you as well, but I was kinda doing some...!" Fiver shouted, but was soon cut off, since now he was being pulled towards the group of does by Molly herself.

Hazel and Dandelion laughed a little at the sight. For such a small doe, Molly still seemed to have more muscle then Fiver, but the two of them just watched, and slowly made their way over to the group of does.

When Molly arrived with Fiver, he was forced into the center of the group. They were smiling and staring at him for some reason, and it scared him a little.

Before Fiver could do or say anything, Molly was lying under him, pointing her paws upward. Soon, Fiver was lying on his back on top of Molly and all four of her paws. She soon started to do pushups with his body. Up and down, up and down, over and over.

"See, I told you girls I could do it!" Molly exclaimed, as she continued to do more and more with him.

"Um, sorry to... interrupt your...workout, Molly, but I was... kinda in the middle of something with Hazel and Dandelion." He told her, hoping to be put back down on the ground.

"Alright." She agreed and laid him back down on the ground. Luckily, before Fiver could throw up.

"Why were you doing that anyway, Molly?" Hazel asked as he sat next to his brother, starting to help him back on to his feet, while Dandelion snuck off to continue the search without them.

"Well, since I am a part of the Owsla now, I have to get in shape. And with these new kittens coming, I don't want to be seen as being any less than a buck!" She answered as she patted her stomach.

"To be honest with you, I am kinda worried that you are now a part of the Owsla." Fiver told her, a little concerned that she might get herself into some trouble being with them, since right now the Watershippers were at war with Efrafa, and she was going to have kittens soon.

"You don't need to worry, Fiver. I will be alright." She told him, giving him a little kiss to destroy any doubts in his mind.

"Yeah, Fiver, and I won't be too harsh with the training either!" A mysterious voice told him. Turns out it was Bigwig. He, Larch, and Holly had made their way over to the group to see what Molly was doing lying on the ground.

"What, no! You can't give me any special treatment!" She told him, playfully glaring at him.

"Alright, alright, I won't." He replied, but gave a secret wink to Fiver, knowing he would be worrying all the time for her sake.

"Wait, Molly, I thought you were going to go outside with Blackberry?" Hazel asked, since that is what she had said before they left the burrow.

"Well, we were, but when we went outside it was dark, raining, and very cold, so we decided to stay inside." she replied, showing them to the entrance. It was true, and it was still raining down very hard.

"What about you, Larch? I thought you were going to watch Molly for me." The little seer asked.

"Well, since I knew they weren't going anywhere, I decided to go talk to Bigwig and Captain Holly…but I still kept an eye on them two, like I promised you." Larch told him.

"Sorry I didn't keep my promise by staying with them, but I did at least keep an eye on her." He continued.

"It's alright, Larch. Thanks for watching her anyway." Fiver told him, putting an arm around Molly.

"So, Hazel, what were you doing anyway, and shouldn't Fiver be resting?" Holly asked, as he looked over the little rabbit's wounds. Fiver was staring down at his feet. Now that Holly had pointed it out, it seemed that everyone was looking at his new wounds.

"I know, Holly. I don't want him outside of the burrow either. I'd rather he rest, but me, Fiver, and Dandelion were trying to find out what had happened to Hawkbit." Hazel answered for Fiver, seeing that he was ready to run and leave.

"Clover, I actually need to ask you a question, if you don't mind." He continued.

"Alright." She agreed.

"You guys go find Dandelion. I need to talk to Clover alone." Hazel told the group. As they all left to go search, Hazel stopped Bigwig, Larch, and Holly.

"Bigwig, Larch, Holly, keep an eye on Fiver for me. I don't want him in be in any danger, alright? And especially be sure to keep him away from Hawkbit!" He told the three, who nodded in agreement.

"Don't worry, Hazel. You can count on us!" They replied and left for the search party. Once they were out of earshot, Hazel started to ask his questions.

"Alright, Clover. You and Hawkbit are mates, correct?" He asked.

Clover nodded.

"Has Hawkbit been acting strange lately?"

"Well now that you mention it, lately I haven't seem him too much, and he always sneaks off in the middle of the night, if you would think that is strange." She answered.

"Alright, do you know of any place he could have gone?"

"Well...there is a secret place, he likes to hide in when he is either sad or mad."

"Where is this place?"

"I can show you right now, Hazel. Come on, follow me." She said.

With no better clues, he decided to follow Clover, who started to lead him down the run to her and Hawkbit's shared burrow.

When the two arrived, Fiver, Molly, Bigwig, Larch, Dandelion, Blackberry, Primrose, and Holly were already there. They were already starting to look around the burrow.

"Hazel, what did Clover say? Any leads for us?" Bigwig asked.

"Yes, and she told me that there is a secret place somewhere in here that Hawkbit likes to hide in!" He answered, lightening all their spirits.

"Yes. Here, let me show you guys." With that said, Clover started to go to the far end of the burrow and started to push against the hard dirt. It looked like she wasn't going to make any progress, until she pushed her way through the dirt and arrived on the other side, probably some part of the underground cave.

"I didn't know this was here!" Fiver exclaimed, as he looked around inside. It was pretty dark, but it looked like the cave went on for miles.

"That's strange. I never remembered it being this big before. Usually it was just this small opening with a wall on the other side." She told them, as she looked in with Fiver.

"Then I guess we need to be careful. Something may have dug its way in here," Hazel told them all.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go find him!" Molly shouted as she started to enter the cave, but was stopped Larch, who pulled her back out.

"Hey, what are you doing? I thought we were going to go find Hawkbit?" She said to her large friend.

"I know. But I need to go first. We don't know what might be down there." He answered as he took the lead role and went in first, while Molly followed.

"Blackberry, Primrose, Clover, and Holly, I need you watch the entrance." Hazel told them.

"Are you sure? What if you need me to talk to Hawkbit?!" Clover replied, worried that something might happen to Hawkbit.

"I am sure we can handle it, and until I return, Holly will be in charge."

"Alright, Hazel." He replied.

"Please, Hazel, don't get hurt." Primrose told him, and they both shared a small kiss, just in case.

"Are you sure you want me to come, Hazel?" Fiver asked, a little concerned with how dark it was inside.

"I don't want you to come, but we might need your visions to save us once we are in there." He told him.

"Just stay in my line of sight. I would never forgive myself if you got hurt, or... I don't even dare say it."

With that said, Fiver hopped in and waited inside for Hazel to come, seeing that he didn't want to go alone anyway.

"Don't worry, I will come back. We all will." He reassured his mate, giving her a last smile before entering.

Once Hazel was inside, he started to trail down the opening. Fiver was right next to him. He held a paw at Fiver's side, making sure that nothing could steal him away. Larch was leading with Molly in tow. It looked like they were trying to race to find Hawkbit first.

"Hawkbit!" Hazel shouted, his voice echoing down the long run. But, sadly, he didn't get any type of response.

As they continued on down the run, it got smaller and smaller and soon they were forced to go in a single file line. Larch was in the lead, followed by Molly, Bigwig, Dandelion, Fiver, and Hazel. Since the run was shaped like this, Hazel forced Fiver to be in front of him, so he could still keep an eye on him. He constantly put a paw on Fiver's rump to reassure Fiver that he wasn't alone, and occasionally gave him a little push to keep him going forward. Every time he touched him, he could feel his brother shaking in fear.

For the large rabbits such as Bigwig, Larch, Hazel, and Dandelion it almost felt like the walls were going to crush them in a matter of seconds. Hazel could feel the walls brush up against his side, making him feel like he would soon be stuck and left behind. Luckily, they had reached a large open section…but it was on the other side of a rather small hole compared to the larger built rabbits.

Since Larch was leading, he tried to go first, but had gotten stuck immediately, stopping the whole group in their tracks. Since Molly was next, she had trying to push Larch through, but it ended in failure. His hips were squishing up against the small opening, preventing him from moving. Molly had another idea. She angled her hind legs right at his stump of a tail and then shot all of her might into her hind legs and then kicked his rump, sending him flying through.

Since the entrance was clear, she was next to enter. It was easy for her since she was smaller, and she slipped through with ease. Next was Bigwig. Of course, he had the same problem as Larch, but this time Molly and Larch pulled him through with his front paws while Dandelion pushed. Luckily he popped right out, leaving just Fiver and Hazel in the small run.

Fiver was supposed to slip in with ease, like Molly...but for some reason, he had gotten stuck. Some of his tail fur was caught in a small wedge in the side of the wall, preventing him from moving.

Before he could tell them, Larch and Molly both took a paw in their mouths, while Bigwig grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. All of them were pulling at once, while Hazel pushed with all of his might on his brother's rump not realizing what he was stuck on. After some time of pulling and pushing, Fiver was lucky, since he didn't lose his tail.

Fiver sat on the ground, watching as they pulled Hazel though. But he was more focused on the fact that some of his fur was gone. A little embarrassed, he didn't really want to move from the spot he was sitting at, but was forced to continue on with the rest of the group. But to his utter horror, there were three different paths, which meant they would have to split up.

"Alright, it looks like we have no choice...but to split up." Hazel sighed.

"I want everyone to have a buddy! Don't need anyone getting separated and then being lost forever." Bigwig told them all. They immediately started to get into groups of two.

They had Molly and Larch, Bigwig and Dandelion, and last, Hazel and Fiver. Three groups, since there was three runs to choose from, any of which that Hawkbit might be in.

"Molly and Larch, take the one on the right. Bigwig and Dandelion, take the middle, and me and Fiver will take the one on the left. Make sure no one splits up, and if you get lost, come back here." With that said, everyone started to walk down their runs, other than Larch and Molly who both started running. Obviously, this was more of a competition to them.

Fiver and Hazel were the only ones left, staring down at their empty and mysterious run.

"You ready, little brother?" Hazel asked, staring down at him. Fiver was still shaking in fear as he stared down the run.

"Fiver, it's alright. I won't leave you, no matter what." He continued on, trying to reassure him. Seeing that it wasn't really working, he gave him a warm hug. It did the trick. It looked like he wasn't afraid anymore, or else he was really good at hiding his fear.

"Alright, let's go." He told him, and soon they plunged into the dark corridor, hoping to find Hawkbit. But what they didn't know was that there was something else lurking in the shadows as well, waiting for the right moment to attack...and eat.


	10. Chapter 10: The Inner Cave P1

After some time of running, Molly and Larch were starting to slow down, and then started to walk again, still trying to search for Hawkbit. They were constantly calling out his name, but sadly, it just echoed on for miles with no response. As they continued to look around and call for him, Molly noticed that Larch was starting to pick up his pace again, causing him to start passing her.

So Molly decided to do the same as Larch and soon started to pass him. Before long, they had forgotten all about finding Hawkbit and were both trying to race each other. Constantly passing each other, they were now in a full sprint down the long run.

As they continued with their fun, they could see in the distance that they were started to come upon a large opening across the run. If they didn't stop in time, they would both plunge into the dark and jugged cavern below.

"Can we make it?!" Molly shouted, as she started to run alongside of Larch.

"Maybe if we keep running!" He panted. Turns out he was starting to run a little slower, since Molly was starting to beat him in the sprint.

He was starting to get really tired, since they had been in a full sprint since the beginning, and now he wasn't so sure if he could make it at all.

"Come on Larch! Keep running... or else you... will fall right in!" Molly told him in between large breaths of air, seeing that he was starting to fall behind.

The gap was now coming up very fast and it was too late for him to stop, so he decided to give it all he had and continued on with Molly.

Larch knew he wasn't going to make it at this speed, so he decided to try and get a little help from El-Ahrairah. But he wasn't so sure he would even answer him, since he had worked for Woundwort and his evil ways…but there was no pain in trying.

"El-Ahrairah, I know I have done some terrible things in the past such as enslaving and killing your children, but I beg of you, please give me the strength to overcome this obstacle!" he thought and soon closed his eyes, hoping El-Ahrairah had answered him.

Larch opened his eyes again to see that the gap had come up. Both rabbits used as much force as was left in their bodies, sending it to their hind legs, and started to jump right over the large gap. It felt like Larch wasn't going to make it, but something or someone gave him a strong enough boost to at least grab onto the other side.

His feet were scrambling everywhere just to try and find a foothold as he held onto the edge for dear life. Molly had already made it. She had rolled into a ball before hitting the ground so she wouldn't hurt herself.

Once she had landed on to the ground, she started to leave her ball state…but once she had, Molly noticed that Larch wasn't next to her.

"Larch!" she screamed, thinking that he had plunged into the darkness. But once she had ran over to look, she let out a large sigh of relief, seeing that he had grabbed onto the side, saving himself from certain death.

"Need some help, maybe?" Molly joked, laughing a little bit. Larch didn't look very amused with her joke.

"Just help me up, please, before I lose my footing and fall in!" Larch told her, obviously not amused with her joking right now.

So she brought herself down and took hold of Larch's right paw in her mouth. Then she started to put all of her weight into pulling him up.

"You are much heavier than I thought!" she continued on jokingly, smiling down at him, but making sure she didn't let go for any reason.

Once he had made it up halfway, she let go of his paw, using both paws to grab on to his back. With one last tug, she had pulled him back up to safety.

Larch and Molly were panting really hard as they landed on the ground, trying terribly hard to get some breath back into their lungs.

"Alright, we are... not doing... that again!" Larch told her in between breaths.

"Agreed!" she replied as she started laughing in between breaths. Soon Larch began to laugh along with her.

"Larch, you're bleeding!" Molly pointed out. He looked down at one of his legs, and it was in fact bleeding. It must have hit a jagged rock when he collided with the other side of the cavern.

Molly crawled over to Larch to look over the wound. As she pushed the fur back, she could see that it was pretty badly pierced.

"Oh no…it's bleeding pretty badly, Larch," she told him as she pushed the fur back into place. But, sadly, it wasn't stopping or helping with the bleeding.

"Can you walk at all?"

Larch tried his best to stand up on his own, but he let out a loud "OW" noise and collapsed back onto the ground. The buck shook his head, indicating a no.

"There's no way I can walk or run, let alone stand." He told her sadly, then he started to lick the wound to try and at least numb the pain. After a few minutes, Molly began to help him with it.

"It looks... like you are... going to... have to go... on without me." He told her through the pain as the licking continued.

"There is no way I am leaving you!" She shouted, angry that Larch would even consider the idea.

"Well, then, what are we going to do? We still have to look for Hawkbit!" he argued.

"Maybe if I could get back over the gorge, I can get help!" she told him. But he just shook his head.

"Even if you could get help, there's no way I can jump back over the gorge, and someone can't carry me and jump at the same time!" se shouted at her.

"Just leave me here!" he continued, and for the second time in his life, he shed a small tear... He had begun to cry.

"I don't want to die in here! I don't want to be alone again!" he whispered, trying so hard to stop his crying. But it didn't help, and he laid his head down, trying not to show Molly.

He felt selfish that Molly should come to the same fate if she stayed with him, but he really didn't want to die in here alone either.

Soon a paw was put on his cheek to wipe away a tear. It was Molly, who was looking down at him with a confident face.

"Well, if you can't walk and can't jump back over, then I guess we need a new option!" Molly told him.

She then lay down and told Larch to hoist himself on top of her back. Not being left any choice, he did as he was told, and got onto her back. At first, it looked like she wouldn't be strong enough, but she used all of her strength to get back on all four paws, and was actually holding him up. She had made sure Larch's hurt leg was hanging off her side.

"What are you doing…and also…how are you doing it?" he asked, and soon stopped crying.

"I am not going to leave a friend behind. And you didn't think I was that weak, did you?" she answered and started to move forward down the run.

"I wasn't sure I could carry you at first, but I did beat Bigwig at a fight, so I would think that carrying you wouldn't be too much harder," Molly continued.

"Thank you, Molly. Now I see why Fiver loves you. You're just like him, the kind that would never give up on her friends. Also, don't take this the wrong way...but you are very pretty." He complimented her, making her blush a little.

"I hope this run leads to the others, but I guess we should keep looking for Hawkbit, like we're supposed to." she replied. Larch nodded in agreement, and so they went on their way, hoping to find the others.

What they didn't know, was that Larch was leaving a trail of blood because of his wound, and something had found it. Starting to bare its teeth, it began following that trail. But the creature was smart enough to keep a long distance behind them to stay hidden.

As they continued on, they could notice that the rocks around them were starting to form crystals in the wall. But they were pointed outward, and were obviously very sharp.

"Man, Larch, everything just wants to injure you today, doesn't it?" She joked with him, and was actually getting him to laugh a little as she carefully maneuvered around the sharp crystals.

"Hawkbit, are you in here?!" Larch shouted. But sadly, he only got loud echoes. Then, all of sudden, a large crystal from the roof smashed down. Luckily, it had just barely missed killing them, but it did throw them to the ground, forcing Larch to fall off of Molly, while she fell next to him. Both were panting hard; eyes wide with fear.

"All right…let's not do that again!" Larch panted, still very shocked that such a noise could bring this whole place down.

Molly nodded very fast, but soon stopped to look up at the shaking crystals above them. They could see where the crystal fell from. Luckily for them, none fell after that one, and soon stopped shaking.

They both sighed in relief. But, sadly, this meant that they couldn't really call out for Hawkbit. The best they could do was just keep an eye out for him.

"I hope the others are doing better than us," Molly whispered to Larch, hoping the rest of the place wouldn't collapse with them inside. Molly soon picked Larch back up and continued on with their scary and possibly very deadly journey.

Back with Hazel and Fiver, they had both just recently entered their run, and of course Fiver was now as scared as ever. Not for his own sake, but for everyone else. Hazel forced him to walk alongside of him. He knew there wasn't anything scary about this place, but he couldn't be too cautious.

As they continued, Hazel could feel that Fiver was shaking even more, and saw that he was constantly looking around at the ceiling and ground for something. At first it looked like he was trying to search for Hawkbit, but the way he was doing it was a little unnerving, like he was searching for a predator to come out and attack them. But, finally, Hazel started to talk to him and try to calm him down.

"Fiver, you don't have to be afraid. I won't let anything happen to you," Hazel reassured him with a smile.

"I know, Hazel. I trust you, but there's just something...dangerous…in this place," he replied, closing his eyes for a second and shaking a little, then once again reopening them.

"Well, it may look creepy in here, yes, but it won't hurt us." Sadly, this didn't calm Fiver down at all. He just looked as scared as before.

"It's not that, Hazel. I just feel like there something in here with us!" he exclaimed.

"Well, of course. We came in here with a group, remember? So, of course, we won't be alone." Fiver sighed. The best he could was ignore the feeling and continue on with the search before he was accidentally left behind.

Hazel had heard a loud moan sound and started to look around for where it was coming from. It was Fiver having one of his visions. The seer soon collapsed to the ground, panting hard with wide eyes.

Hazel rushed over to see what he could to do to help, but the best he could do was just try and comfort his little brother until the vision had pass.

Fiver soon started to freak out and scratch anything in his way. Sadly, Hazel was in the way, but seeing that Fiver wasn't that strong, he just held his arms in place so his claws wouldn't hit him.

"Fiver, wake up!" he shouted, trying to get him to stop before he hurt himself by accident.

That seem to do the trick, because Fiver started to calm back down, and his panting soon began to slow down and stop.

"What happened, Hazel? Why are you holding me like this?" he asked.

"Sorry," Hazel apologized, letting his arms go.

"You had a vision, and from what I saw it was a pretty nasty one! What was it about?"

"I am not sure, something about an old foe…but sadly I couldn't make it out," he answered, shaking a little.

Hazel grabbed Fiver and pulled him against his chest, trying to help comfort him.

"It's all right, I am here. You don't need to worry," he whispered to his little brother, trying to calm him down some more.

"You don't have to go into any more detail if you don't want to."

"Thanks Hazel. You always know the right thing to say," Fiver told him.

"All right, we should probably get back to finding Hawkbit. Unless you want me to take you back?"

It would be a giant relief to Fiver, getting out of this terrible and scary place…but Fiver felt like he needed to stay, and because he felt that Hawkbit running away like this was his fault. So he decided to stay with Hazel and help him search.

"I would feel more comfort if he went back at the Down, but I don't want to force him if he doesn't want to go," Hazel thought, as they both continued on with the search in their run.

Soon Hazel had started to walk a little slower, trying to think over what the vision meant, and Fiver was now starting to pass him.

"Hawkbit, are you in here?!" Hazel called out, but still didn't get a response. He then turned his attention back to Fiver, and now noticed that something was missing on his brother's tail.

"Fiver, what happened to your tail?" he asked, seeing that Fiver had a bare spot on it now.

"Some of the fur accidentally tore off at the hole that led us into the big cave. It got caught and I couldn't tell anyone before you all started to push me through and…well..." he explained. Feeling a little embarrassed, he sat down so Hazel couldn't get too much of a look.

"Only a little. It's nothing too major to worry about. Can we just please get back to looking for Hawkbit? It's embarrassing enough." Fiver tried to plead with his brother, but Hazel wasn't giving up.

"Yes...once I get a look at it. Now stop moving!" he demanded.

Fiver just kept trying to dodge Hazel, making sure his tail was far away from him as possible. But Hazel soon had enough of this, and tackled his brother, pinning him down to the ground. Of course, Fiver didn't stand a chance now, seeing that his brother was a lot stronger than him.

For the first time in his life, Hazel heard something he would never want to hear from his little brother.

"Ow! You're hurting me, Hazel!" Fiver shouted, trying to get him off before he did any serious damage.

"I am sorry, Fiver. I didn't mean to hurt you. It's just that I am your older brother, and sometimes I worry about you," he apologized, and soon got off of Fiver so he could stand back up.

"It's all right, Hazel. I don't think you did any real damage," Fiver replied as he started to move his wrist back and forth.

"What is wrong with me lately? Why am I causing him pain?" Hazel thought as he started to help look over Fiver's wrist.

"Well, it seems all right. We should probably keep looking for Hawkbit," Hazel told Fiver, who soon nodded in agreement.

As they continued on with their search, Hazel was starting to think over whether he was really trying to protect Fiver, like he had promised to his mother. But lately, it had only backfired into hurting him instead of helping him. Hazel started to slow down, letting Fiver go ahead of him. He started to look over his brother's body, and started to remember all the wounds on Fiver.

He saw everything from the wound Hawkbit inflicted upon him, to his own blow and it only seemed that he was doing more damage than protecting him. Hazel bowed his head, letting a small tear hit the ground. He started to stare at the ground, thinking more over this.

"If I am supposed to be his protector, then why am I doing such a horrible job? Fiver must think that I am the worst brother ever!" he thought, blaming everything that has happened to Fiver on himself.

"Why am I his older brother? He shouldn't even be here. He should be resting back at the Down!" As he was thinking, he wasn't paying enough attention to where he was going and accidentally wandered down a different run, leaving Fiver all alone. But, sadly, they both didn't notice.

As Fiver continued on, he started to feel like he was alone, and soon noticed that Hazel was no longer walking next to him. When he looked back, his eyes went wide as he saw, to his horror, that Hazel was no longer behind him. He was gone.

"Hazel, where did you go?" Fiver called out, really hoping to get a response. But, sadly, none came.

He started to look around to see if maybe Hazel was just trying to hide from him, even if it sounded a little farfetched. But there was no sign of his brother.

"That's strange. He would never go anywhere without telling me," Fiver thought as he continued to called his name, hoping for some kind of response.

He thought that maybe Hazel had just stopped to rest and was now out of his eyesight, so he started to walk back the way he came. But it only led to more darkness, and still no Hazel could be seen.

"Hazel!"  
He was starting to panic a little, fearing that he would soon be left behind to die in this place, or to be eaten by whatever else was in here.

"Hazel, I thought you said wouldn't leave me!" Fiver thought, as he started to break down a little.

"Alright, this is no time to panic. Now what would Hazel do in this type of situation?"

"I guess I need to keep moving forward. Maybe I will find him that way!" he told himself, trying to keep up his spirits. As he continued down the run, trying to locate his brother, he started to feel that the air was a little moist, and felt himself getting a little hot.

He tried to look for the cause. Soon, he turned to one of the walls to see that there was steam coming from the small cracks around it.

"So that's why it feels hot…but where is this steam coming from?"

He really didn't have the time to worry about it right now, so he just left it be and continued on with his search. As he went on, the heat situation started to calm down a little, but Fiver was starting to lose a little hope. He still couldn't find his brother or anyone else.

"Hazel! Are you here?" he called out…but there was still no response.

"Your brother has abandoned you, little seer," a mysterious voice told him.

Fiver stood frozen in shock for a moment, and soon started to search around for the noise. But everything was covered in darkness…only now he knew he wasn't alone anymore!

"Why not just give up?" the voice asked.

"No! I can find Hazel easily!" he shouted, his voice echoing into the darkness.

"I have heard this voice before and it's the same one from my vision…but I can't remember who it is!" Fiver thought, trying still to locate this mysterious creature.

"You will die in here!" it began shouting at him.

"You have no hope!"

"Now just give yourself to me!"

"Everyone hates you and you should know that by now."

"Hazel doesn't hate me, he loves me!" Fiver replied, and started to keep walking away from it.

"Then why did he leave you?"

Fiver didn't know what to say at this. It was a mysterious question. Why would Hazel just leave him like this?

He started to doubt a little in his mind. Maybe Hazel did just leave him alone. Maybe he was just fed up with taking care of him.

"No! You are just my imagination getting to me, that's all," he whispered, trying to stay confident against the voice.

"I wish I wasn't...Long ear!"

Fiver stood frozen. He could hear the owner of the voice licking its lips, and now he remembered the voice from long ago, the voice of a once thought destroyed predator.

He turned around just in time to see large claws heading towards him and pinning him underneath, stabbing into his chest.

"No, no! You died down here!" he shouted, trying to get back up. But he was no match for the massive creature.

"Hazel!" he shouted, the word echoing down throughout the entire cave system.


	11. Chapter 11: The Inner Cave P2

"Am I really his protector?" Hazel questioned himself, "I mean, I promised to our mother that I would keep Fiver safe... but now I just don't know."

"Maybe I have grown to hate him. That could be why I bring him pain and not happiness…but am I truly hurting him on purpose?"

He shook his head, denying it. There was no way he could ever hurt his own little brother…or, at least, not on purpose.

"Maybe I have just gone soft with my duties?!" he continued, trying to reassure himself that he could fix the problem.

"That makes sense. With everything that has been going on, how could I pay much attention to him?!"

"He must think I am a terrible older brother…but I can fix this! I know I can!" he shouted.

"Hey, Fiver!" he yelled with excitement…but his joy was soon cut short, as he saw that his younger brother wasn't in front of him.

"Fiver!" he shouted, his words echoing down the run.

"Hmm, that's weird. I know Fiver, and he wouldn't just wander off without telling me!" he thought, staring down the dark passageway, hoping to see him.

He thought that maybe he had fallen too far behind to spot him. Hazel soon tried to catch up with Fiver, not knowing that he was now heading for a dead end.

"Fiver!" Hazel shouted, hoping for some type of response. But all he got was a weird hissing sound.

Turn's out it was just steam, which was coming from small holes in the wall that were dripping with water. Hazel pressed his paw against the hole just to feel the steam, and soon had a damp paw.

"That's strange." Hazel stated. But he couldn't dwell on it right now. He had to find his little brother before something terrible happened.

Hazel had soon reached the very end of the run. There was an entrance, but it was being blocked off with some very large and heavy fallen rocks.

"Fiver! Are you there?!" Hazel shouted. Maybe Fiver was now on the other side of the rocks, or worse, maybe crushed by it. Now he was starting to panic, causing him to smash his paws onto the surface, fearing that he wouldn't ever find his brother.

"Our Mother would be so disappointed with me," he thought, seeing that his only promise was to watch his little brother and keep him safe, but he couldn't even do that.

"I had one job, to watch him! But no, I couldn't even do that correctly!"

As he continued on with his anger he hadn't noticed that something had snuck up behind him and was making its way closer and closer to the Chief Rabbit. As soon as it was close enough, it decided to reveal itself.

"Hello, long ear!" the creature whispered in his ear, causing Hazel to turn around in a flash, just in time to see its large, glowing eyes. But, soon, everything went black for Hazel. It seems the creature had knocked him out...or worse.

Finally, Hazel started to open his eyes a little, to see that there were colors everywhere around him. He felt like he was just a feather in the wind, feeling nothing under him or above him or, in fact, anywhere.

"What?" he asked very weakly, trying to get hold of what had happened and where he was now.

His eyes went wide to see that he was floating in the air. As bright colors floated all around him, they actually seem to be dancing, as if they were living things.

"Okay, what's going on?!" he demanded, trying to touch the floating colors…but it only made them disappear for a second and then reappear.

"I don't understand…I was in a cave! How am I here now?" he thought. But before he could think more on the subject, he was being pushed forward through the open yet colorful space.

"Hey!" he called out, trying to get hold of something to stop him from moving. But there was nothing for him to grab, so it looked like he was forced to cooperate with it.

As he was floating along, he started to see moving images of his past floating around him, from the time he had had to give up his mother, who had gotten SICK of the white blindness, and the day he'd taken on the responsibility of caring for Fiver, to the time he had gotten into to a terrible argument with him.

Hazel could see that was starting to pick up more and more speed. The floating images were now starting to blur out because of the speed…but now the colors were forming new objects-not memories that move, but places old and new, such as his shared den at Sanderford warren to his new one on Watership Down. But now, he could see that he was about to collide with a large tree that had appeared randomly out in his path.

"Oh, no! I've got to stop myself before I get crushed!" he thought.

He tried to move his body out of the way…but sadly, it seemed that he was immobile, so he closed his eyes and braced himself for the inevitable collision. But after some time, he felt nothing. It was as if the tree hadn't even hit him.

Hazel could also feel some type of ground between his paws. He had opened his eyes to see that the memories of his old home were now gone. Now he was standing in a bright field, and in the distance was a lone beech tree on a hill, obviously indicating that it was their new home, Watership Down.

He continued to look around him, and tried to observe his surroundings to indicate where he was, but all he could see was the field where he was standing, and it looked as if when he tried to go into a random direction, he would just come back to the same spot or get lost forever.

"What is going on?!" he shouted, frustrated that none of this could be real. It had to be a figment of his imagination or something else.

Well, maybe I can get some answers, or at least find some help back at the Down," he finally concluded. With that said, he soon made his way over to his home. From this distance, it seemed to be at least a day's trip before he would get there, but, to his surprise, he made it there in less than a few minutes.

Once he reached the base of the hill, he began to climb up it, hoping there would be signs of life or something to help him out of this weird and strange new place.

"I totally forgot how TIRING it is to go up this hill," he joked, trying to lighten his mood. Luckily, he soon made it to the top of the hill…but when he got there, everything immediately changed into something different.

Everything went dark, and when Hazel looked up, he could see that there were stars in the sky. It was not like before, when it was all brightness. When he looked back to the field he was just standing in moments ago, he saw that it was now complete gone. Everything was back in its rightful place. The farm was there, and so was the Orchard, just as if he had come back from a long trip.

He looked at the large tree, and he could hear voices such as Blackberry and Captain Holly's down in the warren. But before Hazel could enter the warren, Fiver walked out and soon passed him to go and sit on the edge of the Down.

"So was everything just a bad dream?" Hazel thought. He decided to go over and sit next to his brother…but when he tried to place a paw on Fiver's shoulder, it somehow went through him, as if he wasn't there at all.

"What! Am I dead?" Hazel whispered. He was really hoping that wouldn't be the case, or else who would watch over Fiver and the warren?

"No, my son, you aren't dead...yet," a mysterious female voice told him, forcing Hazel to look around for this mysterious female. But all he could see was that Fiver and the Down were gone. He was now standing in the large field again, as if he had never moved from the spot.

"Who said that?!" he shouted, waiting for a response. But, somehow, he knew that voice, although he hadn't heard it for a long time. It had to be someone from his past.

You don't remember me, son? It has been a long time since I have seen you. Not since Sandleford warren."

"Mother?" Hazel whispered. Now he could finally see her in front of him...well, most of her.

She was somewhat transparent and was floating just barely above the ground, staring down at Hazel. The strange thing was that she had died long ago, before Hazel and Fiver went on the journey to their new home, Watership Down.

"How are you here? You died from the white BLINDNESS a long time ago…" he stated sadly, then gasped. "Does that mean I am dead too?"

"No, Hazel. You aren't dead like me. I am here to help you," she replied. With that said, the field had disappeared. Now it was all replaced with Sandleford warren, long before the terrible men came and destroyed their home.

They could see that most of the warren had gathered outside near the forest. It was a time when the SICK were being banished from their warren, sent out to die alone and scared in the dark forest.

"I remember this. It was when you were forced away from us, because you were sick like the rest," Hazel told her, watching as the next unfortunate rabbit was forced away, never to be seen again.

"Yes, I know. Just watch," she replied. Hazel nodded, and continued to watch the awful memory.

It was now time for his mother to leave the warren forever. Fiver was forced to watch, not even able to hug his own mother goodbye because of the illness. But as she left, she stopped in front of Hazel to tell him something. Once that was done, she ventured into the woods, never to be seen again, leaving Hazel and Fiver.

"Do you remember what I told you that day?" she asked. But before Hazel could answer, the memory was gone, and they were standing in the field once again.

"Yes, you told me to watch over and keep Fiver safe until the day I would pass on," he replied…but he was still questioning something about his mom.

"Something is on your mind. Tell me what it is, Hazel."

"Mother, if I may ask, how did you get the BLINDNESS?" he finally asked, hoping he hadn't made her sad by remembering the tragic incident.

"I can show you, but…it's not what you might expect," she answered slowly. Soon their surroundings had changed again into Sandleford warren. But this time it was before she had caught the white blindness.

She was in her burrow, resting a little, when Hazel and Fiver had come in and asked for permission to go and play outside with some other young rabbits. Of course, she said yes, but, as soon as they left, she left the burrow to go see her old friend's burrow. Her friend had caught the blindness…but the burrow had not been sealed up just yet.

When she was in front of the entrance, she could see that all the bedding and everything was still there, so she took a deep, SLOW breath and began to enter the burrow. Soon, she started to roll around in the disease infested burrow, and once she was done, left before anyone would notice her.

Soon the memory had disappeared and now they were both standing in the large field again. Hazel was speechless at what he just seen. His own mother had killed herself for no apparent reason, and had brought a terrible burden on him and his younger brother.

"Wh...why would you do that!?" Hazel screamed, shocking his mother with the sudden outburst…but, she did understand why he was so upset.

"I had to do what was best for you," she replied, trying to calm her son down.

"Yes, because living without a mother is totally best for us!" he replied sarcastically. Now he was beginning to sound a little bit like Hawkbit.

"Hazel, I did it because if I had stayed alive, neither of you would leave me when the men would come, thus, eventually, killing you and your brother!"

Hazel was now very confused. Only he and Fiver knew about that vision, and if this was before he had ever had it, then how would she knew about it?

Hazel's mother sighed. She knew she had to tell him the truth, or else he would never forgive her.

"You never did understand where Fiver got his vision talent," she stated. Now everything fell into place. The reason she had put the disease on her, and how she knew about the danger, Hazel finally understood.

"You had the ability to see into the future, just like Fiver," Hazel whispered. "Your power passed on to him!"

"Yes, you are correct, Hazel. I saw the danger and I tried to tell the chief..."

"But he wouldn't listen," Hazel finished, and she nodded her head in agreement.

"I knew that we wouldn't make it if I came with you, and you wouldn't leave me, even if it meant that you would die as well," she continued to explain while Hazel listened. He was trying very hard not to tear up in front of her.

"I put the disease on myself so they would force me out of the warren. This way, you would both want to leave. I did it to save you both!" she finally finished her story, and tried her best to comfort her son, who had begun to cry.

"A mother will do anything to keep her children safe," she whispered into his ear.

After a few minutes, Hazel had finally calmed back down well enough to talk to her. He was still confused about how she was doing all of this, and why she was doing it, since right now his friends were all in danger.

"Mother, I don't mean to be rude, but...why have you brought me here…and how?" he asked, starting to look around again curiously.

"With El-Ahrairah's permission. He allowed me to see again…but only in your dream, and only once during your lifetime. But it could only be for important news, not just a random visit."

"You know General Woundwort, right?" she asked.

"Yes, right now we are waging war against him. But why is that so important? I already know he is a terrible rabbit who needs to be destroyed and we are already doing everything we can to stop him!" Hazel replied.

"I know, but i have to show a terrible future that can only be prevented by you and your brother or else everything you have worked for will be destroyed!" She told him, she was actually scaring him a little but Hazel knew he had to see this.

With that said, their surroundings immediately changed back to Watership Down. But this time, the place looked terrible. All of its surroundings had changed to darkness. Even the large beech tree had been turned over on its side, lying dead on the ground. Inside the warren, everything laid in ruins. Every burrow had a dead rabbit in it-it wasn't from a disease or man-it was from battle wounds. Most of the dead were Watership Down rabbits… Only a few were from Woundwort's army. This was far worse than Hazel could have imagined.

Outside of the Down, next to the farm, there was a battle taking place. A whole army of Efrafan soldiers stood on one side, fresh and ready for battle. On the other side were the rest of the survivors of Watership Down. There weren't many of them, and all were pretty badly hurt…but what was surprising to Hazel was that Fiver was in the front, acting as leader! By the looks of it, he could barely stay standing. His left eye was gone, and both ears had been torn up…but the most horrific sight was that Molly was lying dead, RIGHT next to Fiver. It looked like he had just witnessed her die in his arms. and all he think about was his hatred towards Woundwort.

He was panting very hard as he tried to stay standing, and was also baring his teeth. Only with the help of Blackberry could he stand. It seemed that most of his friends were now gone. All Hazel could see in the Watership Down army out of his friends were Fiver, Blackberry, Strawberry, Bigwig, Hawkbit, Primrose, and Clover, along some others he really didn't recognize. They were probably from a different warren, but they were no match for the much larger and stronger Efrafan army.

General Woundwort came out in front of his army, laughing as he saw the last remaining hope for Watership Down. But they weren't giving up. Fiver was now talking, although Hazel couldn't hear him, nor any of it. He could only watch the horror of war taking place. By now the battle had begun, and with what looked like a command from Fiver, his army was marching slowly forward towards the Efrafan army, who had started to do the same.

Then, both armies began to charge at one another…but because of the small force the Efrafans were fighting, they immediately surrounded the small group. Slowly, every Watership Down soldier started to die. A few minutes passed, and only Fiver was left alive. All of his friends were slowly dying from their injuries or were already dead. Finally, Woundwort dealt the devastating blow to the back of Fiver's neck, and he lay dead on blood soaked grass. Watership Down was finally destroyed.

Soon, the surroundings had turned back to Efrafa and its cruel leader, Woundwort. His once small empire of slave rabbits had grown to a massive size that had stretched all the way to Watership Down. The warren was now a killing center. A large hole had been formed in the Honeycomb, and it seemed that anyone who would disobey Woundwort would be pushed down into the darkness and never be seen again. He also had taken over many warrens, any he came in contact with. He had killed most of bucks, or anyone who refused to join. He was only taking back does and kittens, who were forced to TRAIN as warriors, or being put to slave work. Some were even forced to kill their own parents just to live another day. And since Watership Down was now gone, there was no hope of escaping, so no one even tried. They had all accepted their fate in the horrible place, under their cruel leader's rules.

Their surroundings soon vanished, and now they were both standing back in the large, empty field, Hazel still shocked at what had just happened.

"I don't understand! Is that what is going to happen in the future, or is that happening right now?" he asked, still confused on the whole matter.

"This will be happening in the future, unless you can PREVENT it!" she replied, trying to help him understand.

"How do I prevent this?"

"All you have to do is just...just protect your little brother. It might seem like he would have anything to do with this terrible future, but all you have to do is protect him and keep him safe!"

Before Hazel could ask how, or ask any more questions at all, she slowly disappeared into the brightness, which caused the field to burst into flames, which slowly engulfed him. But the weird thing was, he didn't feel any pain from it. Now he was falling into blackness…and then disappeared.

Hazel was now lying on very hard and cold ground. He opened his eyes to see that he was back in the main cavern they had entered to search for Hawkbit. Bigwig and Dandelion were standing over him, looking very concerned.

"Hazel, are you all right?" Dandelion asked. His voice was a little muffled, but could still be heard.

"What happened?" Hazel asked weakly, trying to sit back up with the help of Bigwig.

"So it was all just a dream…but it felt so real," he thought, sitting back up and waiting for Bigwig or Dandelion to answer.

"We don't know really. Me and Dandelion were searching in our run like you told us to. But when we were down there, we heard a loud...explosion!" Bigwig exclaimed.

"Then a huge tidal wave came out of nowhere and sucked us up! The next thing we knew, me and Bigwig were thrown back here," Dandelion finished.

"Also, that run is gone now. It caved in when we got back, stopping the water from following us," he added, pointing to the middle run, which was, in fact, now blocked off, although water was still dripping out.

"All right. But, I meant how did I get back here? The last thing I remember was that I got attacked by someone or something," Hazel told them as he started to rub the back of his head, indicating that it still hurt from his encounter.

"Oh, that. Yeah, you we were lucky that we got back, actually!" Dandelion exclaimed, confusing Hazel even more.

"I still don't get it," he replied.

Seeing that Hazel was still not going to understand the comment, Bigwig decided to try and explain it a little bit better than his friend.

"What he means is that when we got back here, we saw a weasel coming out of your run. It was dragging you by the scruff of your neck. It was going to head into the middle run, but when it saw it was blocked off, it started to drag you back the way it came. Luckily, we stopped him," Bigwig told him.

"Well, thank you. I would have been dead if it wasn't for you..." Hazel had finally noticed something was now missing, and so did Bigwig and Dandelion.

"Wait a minute, Hazel. If you are here...then where is Fiver?" Dandelion asked, now that he finally noticed the little rabbit missing.

Immediately after hearing this, the three rabbits could hear someone screaming down the left run, calling Hazel's name. It must have been Fiver…and the weasel was down there with him!

"No, Frith, no!" Hazel thought, knowing that it must have attacked his brother.  
He then took off at a fast sprint, leaving Bigwig and Dandelion behind. Both had started to follow their leader, but were slowly losing him because of his speed. He was trying to follow his little brother's cry for help…but it seemed as he got closer and closer the shouting just started to fade away until it finally turned into nothing, resulting in Hazel losing Fiver's trail.

After some time of running, the three found themselves in a new, larger room. It looked similar to the one they had entered, but this one had four entrances instead of three. The fourth entrance was on a higher level.

"Where are we now?!" Dandelion shouted, hoping they weren't lost forever in this confusing place.

"Dandelion, is that you?" A female voice called. When they looked down to the farthest RIGHT opening, they could see that it was Molly. She had emerged with Larch, who was riding on her back, but still bleeding a little from his injuries.

"Hey, did you guys find Hawkbit? And, also, what happened to your leg, Larch?" Bigwig asked, noticing the new wound and the bloodstains on his fur.

"It's a long story…and, no, we didn't find Hawkbit either," Molly answered, putting Larch down so Bigwig and Dandelion could have a look at their injured friend.

"Don't worry, Larch. All we have to do is get you back to the Down, and Blackberry can fix you right up," Bigwig told his friend, who just nodded. Seeing that Molly had grown exhausted carrying Larch, Bigwig took over for her.

"Hey, where is Fiver?" Molly asked, seeing that he wasn't with Hazel anymore. But before anyone could answer her, someone else wanted to introduce himself.

"Hello, long ears!" a mysterious voice called from the fourth tunnel. Soon, a large male weasel came out of its hiding spot, causing the rabbits to ready up in their battle stance.

"You are supposed to be dead! We trapped you down here long ago!" Hazel shouted, standing in front of his friends and facing the weasel angrily.

"Well, guess what? I ain't dead and I think you should be more kind to your friends," the Weasel replied angrily, confusing everyone, especially Molly, since she wasn't there when this one was forced down into the caves.

Finally, the weasel pulled Fiver and their missing friend Hawkbit out his little run. Both were looking uninjured, but probably wouldn't stay that way for long, seeing that they were now in the hands of a very evil and hungry looking weasel. It started to bare its teeth at his two captives, showing the rabbits down below that he will eat them if they make any sudden movements.


	12. Chapter 12: The Inner Cave Ending

"Hazel, help us, please!" Hawkbit begged, since now his and Fiver's lives rested in the claws of a natural rabbit eater…a large and very hungry weasel.

"Ha, what are they supposed to do?!" the weasel laughed, since right now he held all the cards, leaving the rabbits helpless.

"Now, surrender to me, and maybe, just maybe, I will let one of you live...while I eat the rest of your friends!" he snarled, tightening his grip on both of the captives.

"You hurt my baby brother in any way, and you will be sorry!" Hazel shouted. It really wasn't wise to mess with his family, especially when it came to Fiver.

Sadly, they couldn't do much, since the weasel was threatening to kill the two rabbits if they moved any closer, not to mention he was a lot higher up than them, so they would need to think of something…before it was too late.

"You forget yourself, weasel! There are five of us ready to fight and only one of you, so I suggest you let my mate and friend go, or else!" Molly threatened him. But it only seemed to amuse the weasel, who had now had begun to laugh.

"Now, what's so funny, if I may ask?" Dandelion questioned him.

"You think he is alone!" a voice called. It was another weasel…but this one was female. It had emerged from the farthest run on the right side, and must have been the one following Larch and Molly.

"Ah, Heather! There you are, my love, and just in time for dinner!" the biggest weasel told her. Once she saw the large meal, Heather started to lick her lips. She couldn't wait to bite into some fresh meat.

"Can't wait to dine with you, Sly," she said, indicating that the male weasel was actually named Sly.

Hawkbit accidently caught himself some unwanted attention, as he burst out laughing a little. He tried to stop himself…but it was too late.

"What's so funny long ear?" Sly asked, as he started to squeeze the back of Hawkbit's neck.

"Nothing, nothing! Well…it was just that…um…that name of yours was a little bit funny," Hawkbit told him, hoping he hadn't upset him. Luckily, Sly just started to laugh a little with him, making Hawkbit feel very uncomfortable.

"Not the most intimidating name for a hunter, that I do agree!"

"Okay, now that we have introduced each other, can we go?" Hawkbit asked. The weasel slowly shook his head.

"No, sorry. I am afraid not. I am just way too hungry to do that!"

"All right...Sly, I have a question. How are there two of you? We only trapped one of you down here, not two!" Bigwig asked.

"Well, let me explain it to you! When you imprisoned me down here, I was forced to scavenge for food, because it turns out that there is no way out of this system. Believe me, I have tried! Sly explained, and as he CONTINUED, he seemed to only get madder and madder at the rabbits.

"When I had caught a small insect to eat, I suddenly heard a whimper, coming from deeper in the cave."

"That's when I met my new mate; Heather here," he looked toward her and smiled, indicating his love for her.

"I had accidentally fallen down a hole leading to this awful place. But I guess it wasn't all that bad, because that's when he found me," Heather gestured to her new mate and soon tried to continue the story for him. But Hawkbit being…well…himself, he had to open his big mouth.

"Well, I am so happy for you two!" Hawkbit shouted, interrupting Heather's story. "Now, can you please let me and Fiver go?!"

"Shut up, you! Interrupt her again, and you will be sorry!" Sly snapped, tightening his grip, forcing Fiver and Hawkbit to cry out in PAIN.

Hazel and the rest had tried to get closer to help their friends, but the weasels were making it pretty clear that this wasn't the best idea. Sly had pulled his claws back up to their throats, threatening to end their life right now.

"Hawkbit! Hazel! Everyone! Can you both please stop interrupting them so our nice new friends can finish up their story?" Fiver insisted. Luckily, it seemed to work, because Sly was now lowering his claws away from their vulnerable necks…but still not letting go of them.

"It's kind of sad really. You know, the whole having to eat you part? Because you are a very kind rabbit," Heather pointed out.

"Alright, well, I have another question for you two. How did you get Hawkbit here in the first place?" Dandelion continued on with his questions, even though right now wasn't the best time to ask.

"Dandelion, could you shut up for once and help us?!" Hawkbit shouted at his best friend, trying to get himself free from the weasel's strong grip.

"Fine, then!" Dandelion replied angrily, and stopped talking.

"Honestly, this wasn't really about getting our next meal," Heather explained to them, as she started to circle around them.

"Then, what is it now?" Hazel asked, although he knew he would probably hate the answer. As soon as Heather was next to Hazel, she answered him in a most disturbing tone.

"It's all about...revenge," she whispered in his ear.

"Revenge? Revenge for what?!" Hazel argued.

"You trapped me down here and left me to die!" Sly replied.

"You were going to kill us! What were we supposed to do? Let you?!" Bigwig shouted.

"Well, I suppose you're right about that…" Sly told him, licking his lips.

"Okay, honestly, I don't care how many there are of you, or how you even got Hawkbit down here. But there is no way we will let you hurt our friends!" Larch growled from on top of Bigwig's back. But the two weasels weren't scared of him, since, in his condition, he really couldn't fight at all.

"So, let's see…two very hungry and very strong weasels against…maybe three fighters?" Heather replied, insulting Molly by thinking that just because she was small and a doe, she wasn't a fighter of any kind.

"Well, you two are definitely good for each other, considering those nasty faces!" Molly insulted the weasels, who didn't take kindly to this insult.

"Shut up, you! Or we can just push your little friends off, which would cause them to go splat, all over the ground. It will just make it easier for us to eat them!" Sly told her, as he started to push the two rabbits closer and closer to the edge.

They both tried their best to keep away from the edge, trying to find something to grab onto…but the only thing they could do was to clutch onto the weasel, hoping he would stop pushing them.

"If you guys have a plan, I hope you would act on it soon!" Fiver begged, as he watched himself coming closer and closer to falling.

While the two weasels CONTINUED talking to each other about who will eat which rabbit, Bigwig had laid Larch back down on the ground so he could make his way over to Hazel. He had come up with a plan to save Fiver and Hawkbit, not to mention getting out of this situation and away from these two predators.

"Hazel, if we make the weasel mad enough, he will push Fiver and Hawkbit away from him, and they would fall!" Bigwig whispered to his leader, trying to explain his plan.

"Bigwig, how would that help us?! It will kill them!" Hazel replied. Bigwig shook his head.

"No. I meant that when he pushes them off, we can both make a dash and catch them before they hit the ground. I can go after Hawkbit, while you go after Fiver," Bigwig finally finished. Hazel wasn't very keen on this type of plan. One mistake and they could both die…but, honestly, he didn't have any better ideas.

With no other options available, Hazel nodded in agreement, and soon Bigwig had begun to whisper the rest of the plan to the others. Once done, Bigwig and Hazel started to get as close as possible to Fiver and Hawkbit without drawing too much attention.

"What stinks in here? Oh, wait, it must be her!" Dandelion shouted, point to the female weasel, who growled.

"I am warning you, say something like that again, and I will push them off!" Sly threatened, as he started pushing Fiver and Hawkbit, who were now halfway off the edge, just barely holding on to him to prevent themselves from falling to their death.

"Okay, I am sorry…but your fur is just...terrible. I mean, it's just so darn hideous. Don't even consider having children!" Larch continued, ignoring the threat, and trying to get them as angry as possible.

"Alright, fine! You made this happen!" Sly shouted, pushing his two captives off the edge, queuing Bigwig and Hazel to set their plan in motion.

Both weasels were now laughing, as they could hear the two rabbits screaming for help. They waited for that 'splat' noise, which would indicate the two rabbits were now one with the ground, and become a horrifying mess.

"HAZEL!" Fiver screamed, as he saw the ground coming up very fast.

Luckily, Hazel and Bigwig had made it to them just in time. Bigwig wasn't very gentle with Hawkbit, and had tackled him in midair, forcing them both to the ground…but, at least, he had saved his life. Hazel was a lot better in his catching, only because he had turned his whole body upside down, forcing his soft underbelly up. Fiver landed on it, and Hazel curled his body around him, so only he would get hurt when they landed back on the ground and not Fiver.

"All right, let's get out of here!" Dandelion shouted as he picked up Larch, and started to make his way back to the only usable entrance.

Sly had finally stopped laughing, only to notice that their captives were escaping. Most the rabbits were already gone by this time, but Hazel and Fiver had to take a little extra time. So Heather had already gone into action and was blocking the entrance before Hazel and Fiver could escape with everyone else.

"Fiver, stay behind me," Hazel whispered, not taking his eyes off of Heather. Now they were facing a new problem-Sly-who would soon come down and help his lover.

Hazel having had enough of this, he soon attacked Heather, catching her complete by surprise and soon pinned her down on to the ground. But instead of even trying to fight back, she actually began pleading with Hazel not to kill her. But he was only thinking of one thing-his hatred toward her and Sly for holding his little brother hostage.

"No, Hazel! Please don't hurt her!" Fiver shouted, trying to get in his way before he could have a chance to kill the weasel.

"What are you doing, Fiver? Move out of the way!" he replied angrily, trying to force him away. Fiver was now holding onto to Heather's body, actually shielding her from danger.

"Have you forgotten that she just tried to get you and Hawkbit killed?!" Hazel argued. But Fiver still refused to move, and by now, they had run out of time.

"You dare try to harm my family?!" Sly shouted in anger, and jumped from his ledge, not wasting time on trying to go around. But when he landed, the ground beneath their feet started to form large cracks, forcing steam to hiss out.

"What's going on?!" Sly shouted, watching the cracks lead up to the walls around them and finally end up on the ceiling, stopping for a brief minute.

Then, all of a sudden, a large booming noise came from the ceiling. Now, a large amount of water was about to fall upon them if they didn't move quickly enough.

Seeing this was their only chance, Hazel forgot all about Heather, and grabbed Fiver, pulling him away from her so they could both run full sprint down to the entrance, Hazel trying to make sure Fiver was in front of him at all times. As he looked behind him, he could see both weasels trying to get away…but Sly and Heather were sucked immediately into the water, which was in fact following Hazel and Fiver…but they had a small head start.

"Run, Fiver, run!" Hazel shouted, trying his best to get them both away from the water. But now rocks were starting to fall from the walls, and more water was beginning to spray from them.

They could now see that they were coming up to the entrance they had first began in…but it was slowly falling apart, as the ground in the middle had caved in on itself. Acting as a giant whirlpool, it was sucking down water and rocks.

Sadly, Hazel and Fiver were just about past the POOL, and starting to enter the newly enlarged hole that led back to Hawkbit's burrow, when a large and sudden amount of water smashed into Fiver, flinging him into the large pool. It had come from the middle run-the one that had collapsed. The water must have put on enough pressure to push past the rocks.

"Fiver!" Hazel shouted, trying to locate his brother in the pool. But, it seems that he had been submerged under it and couldn't be seen. With no hesitation, Hazel jumped into the pool, trying to locate his younger brother. He soon emerged back at the top, trying his best to locate him before it was too late, and saw finally saw him trying to swim away from the middle…but the pool's suction was very strong.

Hazel swam over to his brother as fast as possible. Grabbing him by the scruff of the neck, he tried his best to pull him back over to the side. But, now, he was caught in the pool, and both were about to be sucked down…that is, until Hazel felt something wrap itself around his torso, which caused them to stop being sucked toward the middle. They were now being pulled back to the safety of the edge. He couldn't see who it was that had saved them but right now the only thing on his mind was not to let go of Fiver for anything.

Hazel and Fiver were now doing their best to keep above the rising water, while pushing with their paws to help themselves move faster. They were almost back to the safety of the edge, when, suddenly, Hazel was struck with a large rock that had fallen from the ceiling. It smacked him squarely in the head, causing everything to immediately fade to black.

"Hazel?" a faint female voice called out.

"Hazel, can you hear me?"  
This time it sounded more like a male's voice.

"Hazel!" Fiver shouted.

Finally, he opened his eyes to see that he was now lying on his side. His head was hurting a lot, but at least he was now inside Blackberry's burrow…but he was alone.

"Hello?" he called out, hoping this wasn't another dream…or whatever it was with his mother.

"Ah, Hazel! You're finally awake!" Blackberry exclaimed as she walked in.

"What happened?" he asked, trying to stand up. Other than feeling a little wobbly, he was now able to stand without difficulty.

"Well, luckily, all of you guys made it out of the cave, although you got a pretty bad shiner on your head in the process," she explained to him.

"How long have I been out?"

"Not too long, I wouldn't think...about an hour at most."

"Also, someone has been dying to see you."

"Come on in, he's awake!" she called over her shoulder.

"Hazel!" Fiver shouted, rushing from the entrance and into his brother's arms, accidentally tipping him over. Hazel honestly didn't care. Blackberry was giggling as she watched the two brothers unite again.

"I thought...I thought...that I had lost you forever," his little brother stated sadly.

"That will never happen. It would take more than a rock to separate me from you," Hazel reassured him, hugging Fiver tight and close to his chest, not letting him go.  
Finally, Fiver was the one who let go. He watched as his brother slowly got back onto his feet again with the help of Blackberry. But the joy on Fiver's face was slowly fading back into sadness.

"What's the matter, Fiver?" Hazel asked.

"Can you just come follow me, please?" he replied sadly, starting to leave the burrow. Not having another option, Hazel had started to follow him, but needed help from Blackberry to keep going.

He now noticed that they were heading back toward Hawkbit's burrow. But instead of going inside, they went past it, and down into the caverns below. Luckily, it was the ones that led to Efrafa, not the destroyed and flooded caverns. But, to his surprise, everyone was now waiting down there. They had all gathered around something near the crystal pond.

He noticed that everyone was either crying, or were just not speaking. But, all had saddened faces. It looked liked maybe a member of the warren had died recently.

Finally, Hazel started to hear a small whimpering sound. As he got closer and closer, he could make out two medium sized figures. They were definitely not rabbits, but they were lying on the ground next to the calm water. Once they were fully in sight, Hazel was horrified to see who it was.

"Sly!" Hazel shouted in surprise…but the weasel took no notice of him.

"What is he doing here?! He is going to kill us all!"

To his surprise, no one was running away. They just stood there staring down at the male weasel. He had not even tried to get up and attack them. All he was doing now was cradling a lifeless figure in his paws.

"You know…the funny thing is…she didn't even like eating rabbits," he whispered to them.

Now he could see that he was cuddling Heather, his new mate. But, sadly, she wasn't moving. She was dead in his arms.

"Why are you here?" he asked, but didn't get an answer.

"You know, she actually saved your brother and friend from me," Sly told Hazel.

"It's true, Hazel. She did actually save us from being eaten," Fiver replied. Hazel still very confused.

"When I was being dragged back to them by Sly, Heather stopped him from eating me and Hawkbit."

After this was said, Fiver made his way over to Sly. At first, Hazel was about to stop him, but the weasel didn't even try to attack him. All Sly did was set Heather down onto the ground. Then, he looked at Fiver, and soon started to shed a few tears. To Hazel's surprise, Sly actually hugged his little brother and cried into his shoulder instead of attacking him.

"I am so sorry for what I did," he whispered into Fiver's ear.

"This is getting stranger and stranger," Hazel thought, watching very closely to make sure Sly didn't try anything.

"Heather was the one who saved you and Fiver from the whirlpool, back in those caves," Molly whispered to him.

"Why?"

"I am not sure. But, when she made it back with you two...she had swallowed a lot of water," Blackberry continued for Molly while the other doe went over to help comfort Fiver and Sly.

"We thought about leaving her, but Sly insisted that we help her, so we took her here to help…but also to make sure we kept them away from the others. I tried everything I could, but she just didn't get enough air, and..."

Finally, once Sly was done crying, he got away from Fiver, and was now heading towards Hazel. Immediately, Bigwig and other strong members of the warren stopped him, thinking he was going to try and kill Hazel.

"No, let him through," Hazel said. At first, they were a little hesitant about it. Yet, finally, they did as they were told, letting Sly come close to Hazel.

Sly was now standing in front of Hazel, but he was still being watched by Bigwig and their Owsla members, who were ready to jump and attack Sly if he tried anything. But there was only sorrow written on his face, not even a little bit of hatred towards them...just sadness.

"It's kind of funny, you know. I never really liked to eat rabbits either," he suddenly joked.

"You tried to eat us," Hazel told him, making him look very ashamed.

"I know, and I... I am sorry for what I did. I'll be going now," he finished, and started to walk past to leave.

He really was leaving. To the rabbits' shock, he hadn't even tried to attack while he was down here, or kill anyone for food. All he did was slowly walk away from them.

RIGHT before Sly was about to leave for good, Hazel spoke up.

"Sly, wait."

"Yes?" he asked.

"I can't believe I would ever say this, especially to your kind…but...would you like to stay at Watership Down, with us?" Hazel offered. The whole warren was shocked at this. How could Hazel let a natural elil stay with them?

Sly declined the offer by shaking his head, and soon started to walk further ahead. That is, until Fiver ran after him, and stopped him from taking another step.

"Please, Sly! I forgive you! What would Heather want you to do?" he asked.

Sly was now staring into his eyes.

"You really are a kind rabbit, just like Heather said before."

"Yeah, I did say that. Now, what would I want you to do?" a female voice called. Everyone turned around, to see Heather, who was now staring directly at Sly. She hadn't died after all.

"H…Heather…is that really you?" Sly asked…but before she could reply, he was already next to her, and had placed a kiss upon her cheek.

"Hazel, if you would let us... I think we would love to stay here," she answered. Everyone was very worried. How could they trust someone like this?

After some time of thinking, Hazel had finally came to a conclusion.

"All right. But there will be many rules to follow," Hazel told them.

"I think I can already guess what they are. And, don't worry, me and Sly can just stay on an insect DIET!" Heather replied with a smile.

"Also, you will always be watched carefully, until you can be trusted. I just can't take the chance of someone being hurt or killed."

Both of them didn't care what kind of circumstances they had to live under. Just as long as they were together, they would be happy.

"I guess you can never judge someone before you really meet them," Hazel thought, as he watched the two weasels hold each other in their arms.

"Thank you Hazel! Thank you…for giving me and Heather a chance. You won't regret it." Sly thanked him.

"I guess you rabbits aren't that bad after all," Heather joked.

"All right, come on, you two," Hazel replied, leading them back because a cave was the worst thing to be in right now. He was sick and TIRED of caves.

Fiver had wandered up next to Hazel, while the rest followed in tow, and Hazel had been meaning to ask a question to Fiver anyway.

"You think we can really trust them?" he finally asked.

Fiver started to think over it. This was a pair of natural killers that they were letting inside their warren, and they could be totally unpredictable. But that didn't stop the long eared seer from changing his mind on the matter of these two weasels.

"Yes, we can," he finally replied, as he turned around to see the two were still together, as they followed everyone back up and away from the caves.

"Well, you have never given me a reason to doubt you yet, Fiver. Even if this is totally crazy," Hazel chuckled as he rubbed his brother's head playfully.


	13. Chapter 13: More That Meets The Eye

Frith had just begun to peek over Watership Down, indicating a fresh and beautiful new day, but not a single rabbit was awake. As a matter of fact, no one was eating, no one was in the Honeycomb chatting away, not even the three pranksters who loved to cause mayhem and trouble for their own pleasure. Even the three energetic kittens; Mallow, Snowdrop, and Gilia weren't up, and they loved to play in the morning.

Everyone was exhausted, especially after what happened in the cave and the decision to take in the two new weasels, Heather and Sly, who were in fact sleeping together in a newly dug burrow, which had been placed as far back in the warren as possible. Of course, it wasn't the most comfortable, but they didn't mind, just as long as they had each other.

Still, the biggest issue with two weasels living on the down was their natural habits: to kill and eat smaller animals, especially rabbits. But, to prevent this they agreed to only eat worms or insects. They would be watched very closely every day, and if they wanted to go anywhere in the warren, they needed an escort of Owsla members.

Once Fiver heard of this, he wasn't very fond of this idea, as it sounded very similar to being a prisoner in Efrafa, other than the part about being killed and living under a tyrant ruler who would stop at nothing to see the whole destruction of every warren he came across, and to enslave any rabbits that defied him.

Luckily, Hazel had explained to his little brother why it had to be this way, and to make matters easier, the weasels did agreed with the terms. At the moment, safety had to come first, even if that meant some feelings would be hurt.

Truth be told, Hazel wasn't paying too much attention while the burrow was being dug. He was drowning his own thoughts about the nightmarish vision he received from his mother. So many questions were still unanswered, but he couldn't go back and ask her, as he was still unsure how he got there in the first place. Finally, he decided to ask Fiver for some advice about it. But before he got a chance, the little seer was fast asleep in his bed, so Hazel decided to wait until morning to ask, and went off to his burrow with Primrose and their three kittens.

Usually in the early morning Bigwig would take his Owsla to train outside. However, he was short on members, as Larch had been excused for a couple of days. He was forced to stay in Blackberry's burrow so he could get help for his newly punctured leg. Larch honestly didn't mind too much, because now he got the chance to sleep in and just take it easy for a little bit; not like when he was in Efrafa, bullying and killing weaker slaves.

On bad days, Larch would usually wake up sweating and panting because of the nightmares he had, especially over the families he tore apart. Even the young kittens weren't safe from his claws. He had never told anyone about these nightmares because he didn't want to look like a weakling in front of other members in Efrafa, but since he had left there was nothing to fear. Watership Down was his new home, and he had very supportive friends. Maybe he could go and ask Fiver for some advice when he woke up. Larch knew that the little guy knew information about visions, not anything on nightmares…but it was worth a try.

Bigwig had also lost Hawkbit, Strawberry, and Dandelion because they had gotten the same luck as Larch and got out of their early training. They were currently in charge of checking in on the weasels and watching them for the day. At the moment, they had been put as guards by Hazel and were in front of the burrow. But soon after he left them, all three of them fell asleep.

The Owsla leader had now awoken in his lonely burrow, and started to make his way outside to practice by himself. He was thinking over some new moves he could try. Ever since Molly and Fiver had fought him and Hawkbit, he was very keen on learning their fighting skills, as they could easily turn a battle in their favor. His thoughts were interrupted when he had walked past Blackberry's burrow and saw out of the corner of his eye that Larch was shaking in his bed and mumbling something terrible.

Fearing the worse, Bigwig walked in the burrow to see that Blackberry was nowhere to be found. This would usually raise questions, but at the moment, he was only worried about Larch. Once he was close enough, he grabbed the trembling rabbit, trying to wake him by repeating his name over and over. Luckily, by the fifth time it had done the trick and Larch was now awake. He was panting and obviously scared of something, but he was awake.

"Hey, Larch, are you all right?" Bigwig whispered, staring down at the terrified rabbit. But, sadly, he didn't get any type of response.

"All right. Well, do you know where Blackberry is?" he asked, changing the subject.

Larch still didn't respond. All he did was lean over and glance behind the large Owsla leader, as if expecting something to be behind him, ready to attack them... But there was nothing except an empty run.

Once he knew he was safe inside the burrow, he started to calm down, thankfully before he did something crazy, like run outside randomly, or maybe attack Bigwig.

"Sorry, Bigwig, I…um…didn't mean to wake you," he apologized, trying to calm himself even more by talking to a friend.

"No it's alright. To be honest, I was already awake," Bigwig replied.

"Anyway, are you alright? I mean, you were mumbling and shaking just like Fiver when he's having a vision."

Larch didn't answer him. He had started to look down towards his own paws, trying to avoid any type of eye contact. He had begun to tear up a little when he remembered the nightmare he was in, but the strangest thing was that it wasn't the about the slaves or other rabbits he had killed... It was about his own parents.

"Bigwig, can you please go and get Fiver for me?" Larch choked out, still trying to avoiding eye contact.

"Why, is your leg acting up? Because I don't think Fiver knows as much of herbs or medicine as Blackberry does," Bigwig explained, looking down at the leaf across Larch's punctured leg.

"Plus, he is asleep. Do you really want a lashing from Hazel?" Bigwig chuckled, trying to lighten the mood as much as possible. However, Larch didn't find it too amusing.

"Just get him... Please," Larch begged as he continued to stare down at his front paws.

Bigwig finally understood why he wasn't looking at him, as Larch had begun to cry and of course he could hear his voice break. He didn't want to press the matter anymore. Obviously, he only wanted to talk to Fiver.

"All right, Larch. Don't worry, I will go get him," Bigwig reassured him, leaving the sorrowing rabbit to his own thoughts.

"Where is Blackberry when you need her?" Bigwig thought as he walked quickly through the empty run, trying his best to get to Fiver as soon as possible, but also not to accidently wake anyone else. As he turned a corner, he didn't see Blackberry in time. The doe was in fact trying to run back to her burrow before she was missed, but the only thing she accomplished was being smashed up into a pile, placing her on top of Bigwig.

"Blackberry, where have you been? Also can you get off me?!" The Owsla leader demanded as he started to push into the doe's stomach, trying to get her off.

"I am sorry, Bigwig," she apologized, trying to get off. However, her paws couldn't find a hard enough surface and kept slipping, causing her to fall back down on him.

"Ow! Stop pushing so hard on my stomach. You're pinching me," Blackberry complained, as another shove came into her.

"I thought I had more time," she whispered, trying to keep to herself.

"More time for what?" The Owsla leader asked, surprising the doe.

"Nothing. It's nothing, Bigwig," she replied hastily. Now that she was finally off of him, Blackberry tried her best to get away and sprint back to the burrow before Bigwig could get a chance to ask her any more questions.

Sadly for her, he was still hungry for answers. Just before she could escape, he grasped the tip of her tail with his front teeth and forcefully pulled back, causing her topple over, and stopping any attempts of escape.

"Ow! Bigwig, what are you doing?" she asked, staring back at him with a confused and angry look.

"I want answers! More time for what?" he replied, staring sternly at her once she had gotten back up on her feet.

"And I want you to let go of my tail!" Blackberry shouted. Sadly, Bigwig wasn't going to comply with her demands. It looked like she was going to have to do this the hard way, so she began stabbing her claws into the ground, while using all of her strength to crawl away from him. But the large Owsla leader had a firm grip, and wasn't letting go for anything.

"Where have you been!?" he pressed, with a different question, his words muffled because of the fur in his mouth and the clenched teeth.

Blackberry seemed to be more determined to get away than answer a simple question, because Bigwig could feel himself being slowly pulled forward. He decided to do the same as the stubborn doe, and stabbed his own claws into the ground, preventing her from going any further.

"Tell me, and I will let go!" he shouted, trying to reason with her now.

Blackberry ignored him, continuing to try and pry herself forward. Realizing that this wasn't going to work anymore, she began to use her head, and soon started to search for any roots to bite down on with her teeth and use for anchor points. She finally found a strong enough root and grabbed a hold. Soon, the doe was starting to win the tug of war again.

Realizing that he couldn't hold her in place anymore, Bigwig decided to do something similar to the doe and began to use his heels to pull backwards instead of forwards. Of course, the silvery-blue tail was caught in the middle, being stretched beyond its normal means in two different directions, with neither party growing tired.

"No…where... Bigwig! Now let...go of... me!" she shouted, straining her words as she felt herself being stretched into two different directions. Her front wasn't moving because of the new anchor point, but the rest of her was being forced away. But, of course, her demands still fell on deaf ears, because Bigwig's grip wasn't letting up in any way.

"I said... Let go!"

Blackberry had had enough of this. She made sure she had a good grip with her teeth around the same root, and once she knew she was secured, she curled up her hind legs and gave a sharp and powerful kick right into Bigwig's chest, causing him to let out a loud grunt. However, he still didn't let go.

Bigwig saw that she was getting ready with her hind legs for another powerful kick. But before Blackberry could deliver the blow, Bigwig had pulled his final move and got on his hind legs, starting to pull upwards. After a great struggle, he forced Blackberry off the root she was holding onto, forcing her lower half into the air, which caused her hind legs to dangle and foiled any plan to kick him again.

"Are you done?" he asked more calmly, staring down at the half-grounded doe.

"Yes. Just let me down, please," she sighed, realizing she had been beaten, mainly because she was now too far away to kick him again, and on that note her hind legs couldn't even touch the ground anymore.

"You promise you're not going to try to run away once I put you down?" Bigwig replied, his words still muffled by the fur in his mouth.

"Yes, I promise," Blackberry answered in defeat.

Seeing that he had her by the tip of the tail, literally, she couldn't escape, and even if she did try, he could pull the same stunt. Once he had lowered her back down to the ground and let go, she kept her promise, and didn't try to run away.

Once Blackberry was back down on the ground, she began to lick her tail and clean it from any dirt or grime. Bigwig began to feel bad, as it looked like he may have accidently hurt her in the process.

"You know, I never did like the taste of tail in my mouth," he chuckled, trying to lighten the mood for Blackberry.

"Well...usually, rabbits don't eat tails," she replied, continuing the joke.

Finally, once they had calmed down, or at least were calm enough to talk to each other, Bigwig was still wondering what was so important to keep a secret that she would be coming in this late.

"Alright, Blackberry, spill it. Why did you try and run from a simple question?" he finally asked, waiting for an answer, and watching her so she couldn't get a chance to escape.

Blackberry let out another deep sigh, realizing there was no way out of this, and Bigwig would just keep asking questions until she told him.

"I've been..." she paused, trying to avoid looking him in the eyes directly, and started thinking once again about whether there was any way she could just walk away from this… But that wasn't going to happen.

"You've been what?" he pressed on, moving his right paw in the form of a circle, gesturing her to continue.

"I've been meeting with..." she stopped once again.

"Blackberry, tell me!" he shouted, getting fed up with this nonsense.

"I've been meeting... Captain Campion, at night... Near Efrafa."

Silence filled the run. Either Bigwig was too shocked to reply, or he hadn't found it too bad. But seeing how his eyes began to widen, he must have been too shocked to say anything.

"Blackberry, do you realize the danger you have been putting yourself in by doing that?!" he shouted, scaring her with his sudden burst of anger.

"They could have easily captured you, or worse, they could have killed you, right after you revealed where our home is!" he continued.

Blackberry turned her head down towards the ground, thinking it was best to wait to speak until Bigwig's temper had calmed down.

"What were you thinking?!"

Finally, he had finished his tantrum, waiting for a response.

"I am sorry, Bigwig... But I love Campion, and I just had to see him," Blackberry answered sadly, feeling ashamed and a bit hurt. She realized that she had never been yelled at by anyone, not even her own parents.

Feeling a little guilty for what he had said, Bigwig had gotten closer to the hurt doe and placed his paw on her chin, pulling it towards him.

"I am sorry too, Blackberry. I shouldn't have yelled at you," he apologized. Luckily, it was working, because Blackberry's expression had lightened up a little. However, she soon fell back down to her saddened state.

"No, you don't need to apologize, Bigwig. I should have told you or Hazel. I guess... I wasn't thinking about the bigger picture."

"I would understand if you told Hazel about this." She offered, even if it meant she couldn't see Captain Campion again or at least until Woundwort and Efrafa was destroy.

"Tell Hazel what? I was just heading to Fiver's burrow." He told her, at first it only put a confused face on the doe until she finally realize what he was doing.

"Thank you Bigwig!" Blackberry squealed but the surprises didn't stop there because soon she gave the Owsla leader a warmful hug. Once she had let go, she began her way back to the burrow but was stopped once again by Bigwig but in a more friendly matter.

"Hey Blackberry..." He paused.

"Just promise me, you be extra careful."

She nodded, indicating that she had accepted the deal and soon darted around the corner back to her burrow as fast as possible, hoping they hadn't woke anyone else with their argument and conversation but they had gotten lucky... this time.

"The day has barely started and already things are going crazy!" Bigwig thought and sadly before he could start his training, he still had to go and get Fiver for Larch. As he progressed further to Fivers burrow, he started to think that maybe he should bring Molly to train with him, she was part of the owsla anyway and plus it wouldn't hurt to train her in some new areas.

Finally Bigwig was outside of Fiver's burrow and lucky for him, both of them were sleeping together in a bed, which was made up of soft hay.

"Can't believe I am saying this but... they are pretty adorable together." Bigwig thought, smiling at the two curled up lovers, he actually really wanted to leave both of them but priority comes first.

"Molly, Fiver." He whispered. He was trying especially hard to stay quiet because Hazel and his family were asleep close by in a different burrow yet sadly it seemed neither of them noticed and he was forced to get a little closer.

"Molly, Fiver." He repeated but the only response he got was when Molly had snuggled up closer to Fiver. Now, getting a little annoyed, he made sure his mouth was right in front of their ears before trying again.

"Molly, Fiver, wake up!" He finally hissed, luckily it did the trick, or well for Molly because she shot her eyes open but the sudden noise had startled her enough to accidently hit Fiver in the back with her paw, waking the little seer.

"What...what is it, Molly?" Fiver asked, still very drowsy.

"Sorry to wake you both but I require you." Bigwig calmly replied. Molly was now up on her feet, waiting for what he needed. She was also joined by Fiver now, both staring at him.

"What did you need, Bigwig?" She asked, surprisingly she wasn't nearly as tired as her mate, who had just shut his eyes once again.

"I need you to go outside for a few minutes." He answered, putting a confused face on the pregnant doe but she did as she was told and left the burrow, leaving Bigwig with Fiver.

"Fiver, when you get a chance Larch needs to talk to." He told him, laughing a little at how hard the seer was trying to stay awake.

"Why, is something wrong?" Fiver asked, concerned for his friend.

"Honestly, i am not sure but he wouldn't tell me, all he said was to come get you." Bigwig explained.

Now that Fiver was official awake he nodded his head, beginning to leave for Blackberry's burrow to see what Larch needed yet before he left, Fiver stopped halfway through the entrance.

"Bigwig... you will take care of Molly right? She is pregnant you know, so please, try to go easy on her." Fiver asked of him without turning just a tiny glance.

"Yes Fiver i know, you don't need to worry. I will take extra care of her." Bigwig answered, reassuring him.

"Thank you Bigwig" He replied and soon disappeared around the corner, heading to Blackberry's burrow.

After a quick look around in the burrow, Bigwig had started to leave to go meet up with Molly outside but he accidently ran into Hazel, who had just started to enter the same time he was leaving.

"Hazel, what are you doing up?" The large owsla leader asked, staring at Hazel a little confused.

"How many rabbits am i going to wake?" Bigwig thought as he waited for a response.

"I heard voices from Fiver's burrow, so i came to check up on him but i ran into him and he explained that it was only you." He answered, relieved it wasn't something else.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Larch wanted him for some reason," he chuckled, shaking his head back and forth as if something was in his fur.

"Sorry, things have been a little crazy since I woke up. Honestly, all I wanted to do was go up and practice alone, but then I decided to bring Molly with me."

"Alright, well. I am up anyways, so I might as well come with you," Hazel whispered, and Bigwig nodded in agreement.

As they were about to make their way to the surface, Hazel couldn't help but peek into Fiver's burrow, just to make sure there was nothing else in there.

Hazel had begun to smile seeing that the burrow was empty, knowing that Fiver was safe when he was asleep. But the feeling that his brother could be in danger kept nagging at him, mainly because of Heather and Sly.

"What, you didn't believe me? I told you, I was talking to them," Bigwig whispered to him, catching him in the act of peeking inside Fiver's burrow.

"No, I believed you. It just...I need to make sure he is safe at all times," Hazel answered, remember the horrible future his mother showed him.

"You know... Fiver is very lucky to have you as an older brother," Bigwig told him before continuing up to the surface, leaving Hazel to his thoughts.

"Not as lucky as you think..." he whispered under his breath, thinking again about how close he had come to losing his baby brother to the weasels down in the cave. Something had happened along the line that had made his brother's safety second priority, and it had almost gotten him killed, and even nearly captured by Woundwort in the process.

"I really should tell him or someone else about what I saw down in the cave," Hazel thought. He still hadn't told anyone about his dream, but maybe Fiver could help him understand it, and hopefully prevent it.

"Then again…what if I tell him and it causes him to run away? He could die out in the forest or get captured by Efrafa! "

So many scenarios ran through his mind that only ended badly for his brother. But, luckily, Fiver was helping Larch at the moment, so Hazel didn't have to test these theories yet.

After quite a bit of thinking, he decided not to tell Fiver about his dream. But just to be safe, he decided to wait until everyone was awake and tell the whole warren about it. However, he would leave Fiver out of it, just to be safe.

Finally, Hazel noticed Bigwig was gone, so he went up to the surface to watch what Molly and Bigwig were doing and maybe eat a little. He was feeling a little hungry.

As Hazel was nearing the surface, he could hear shouting from above. When he got to the surface, Hazel noticed that Bigwig was actually yelling at Molly about something, and she was arguing back.

"Why do you does have to be so stubborn? Why can't you just tell me where you learned to fight?! Bigwig shouted. But Molly wasn't scared of him and stood her ground.

"I told you, I don't remember! Why do bucks have to be so stupid!?" she screamed. However, this just made the Owsla leader madder.

Hazel made his way over to the two angry rabbits and tried his best to get them to calm down before they woke the whole countryside with their yelling.

Bigwig had had enough of Molly stubbornness and Hazel's intervening, and actually raised his paw to strike Molly across the face. But luckily, Hazel stopped him just in time.

"Bigwig... Follow me!" Hazel demanded with a very angry look on his face.

Bigwig did as he was told and left Molly. Both of them whispered something under their breath, probably nothing good about each other. But it didn't matter what they said, because Hazel was too furious at what Bigwig had been about to do.

"Yes, Hazel?" Bigwig answered through gritted teeth, obviously very irritated over the whole thing, and still glancing back the angered doe.

"Bigwig. What? Was? That?!" Hazel shouted, startling the Owsla captain with the sudden outburst.

"What... Hazel... I didn't..." Bigwig tried to explain, but Hazel just interrupted him.

"You were about to strike her!" he continued, not losing eye contact for a second.

"I wasn't really going to..." Bigwig was cut off again, and he was actually getting a little frightened. He rarely saw Hazel this mad.

"You do realize that is Fiver's mate, and that makes her a part of my family?! I will not let anyone hurt my family!" Hazel growled. At the moment, it appeared that he was really threatening Bigwig.

By now Bigwig had just stopped trying to explain himself, because he knew Hazel would just keep interrupting him.

"If he knew you struck her... You remember what he almost did to Hawkbit, how mad he was! You Idiot!"

"What are you? Are you Hawkbit now?! Are you just going to hit anyone you want?!" Hazel finished, waiting for a response, not losing eye contact for anything.

"Hazel..." Bigwig paused, trying to think of the best response.

"I am sorry," he sighed, and soon broke eye contact with his leader to stare at the ground.

"It's not me you should be apologizing to," Hazel replied, but in a much softer tone.

Both of them glanced over to see that Molly had stopped glaring at Bigwig. At the moment, she was staring at the sky. Lord Frith and his rays were being blocked out by multiple dark clouds, which were in fact drifting towards them.

"Well, if you are going to do something, Bigwig, you might want to do it before it starts to rain," Hazel told him, as he watched the clouds get closer.

"All right."

The Owsla leader made his way over to Molly. It seemed that she didn't even notice him. She was too distracted by the dark and menacing looking clouds.

"I am sorry for what I said, Bigwig," Molly apologized. Turns out, she was listening to their conversation the whole time.

"No, it was my fault... I never should have done that, especially to you," Bigwig replied.

Molly turned around to face him.

"So are we good?" he asked.

By the look she gave him, it seemed she was still mad, so he decided to leave before the rain from the clouds started to fall and get him wet.

Once he had turned around to hop away, Molly kicked him lightly in the back of the tail and forced him to topple over and fall face first into the grass.

"Hey!" he shouted, flipping on his back and staring back up at her.

"Yes, we're good, Bigwig," she giggled and disappeared down inside the warren to try and find Fiver.

"What is it with does?" Bigwig asked as he got back to his feet and had started to shake the grass off his back. He was soon greeted by Hazel.

"What, you don't like her? I think she is very funny," Hazel chuckled, seeing the expression on the large captain's face change.

"Does and bucks... everyone is crazy in this warren!" Bigwig complained.

"Well, I can agree with that. But that's why we love each other, Bigwig," Hazel replied.

"What were you two fighting over anyway?"

"I thought I could..."

Bigwig was interrupted by a falling raindrop which had made contact with his nose, causing him to flinch. It seemed the clouds had finally made their way over. It had begun to rain, showering the land with free yet sometimes annoying water.

"I guess we should talk about this inside, before we get too wet out here," Hazel offered. Luckily, Bigwig nodded in agreement, and soon the two made their way back inside the nice, dry warren.

"Fiver did say that when it rains... something crazy always happens." Hazel told Bigwig as he stopped safely inside the entrance, and turned around for a second to watch the rain come down and see a flash or two of lightning in the distance.

"Don't I know it!" Bigwig chuckled as he continued down to the Honeycomb, remembering the whole thing with Larch, Blackberry, and Molly... It was going to be a long, and probably confusing day.


	14. Chapter 14: Rainy Day

It had been roughly two hours since the first rain drop landed in the countryside. Sadly, it wasn't the last, because a deadly storm had broken out all over, mixing itself with strong winds and freezing rain, and forcing many parts of the forest to flood with excessive amounts of water. The winds weren't making life any easier for the inhabitants, as many of the beautiful trees were being ripped out of the ground, toppling over each other and blocking off many paths.

Along with the rabbits of Watership Down, many other animals had scurried down into their warm and safe homes to wait out this awful storm. But, of course, Woundwort being Woundwort, he had different plans, as he still sent patrols out to look for Hazel and his Outsiders. In reality, he was just sending his soldiers to their death, as many could fall to one predator that might still be lurked outside. Or, even worse, they could get sick and be forced away from the warren.

One unfortunate group had just departed from Efrafa in the middle of the storm. To make matters even worse, Woundwort had appointed Captain Moss to lead this group. Soon after all of them had left the warren, crossing over the stone bridge, many of the warriors had accidentally separated from the group. They would be lost in the forest, with very little chance of survival.

Soon, the strong group of seven had dwindled down to a measly four, with Captain Moss leading the search. But at the moment, he was just trying to find his way back to Efrafa. However, the group had run into a major obstacle; a fallen tree, which blocked any way forward.

"This is stupid! Why do we have to be out here?" Jack complained, trying his best to communicate over the loud rain.

"I can't see anything in front of me!" Comet continued, accidentally bumping into to his Captain. But even though he had bumped into Moss, he didn't leave his side for a second. Unusually for an Efrafan warrior, he seemed to be more scared than anyone at the moment.

"Comet, don't be such a scaredy kitten," Bell replied, teasing the young buck as she wiped water away from her eyes, clearing her vision.

It was very, very rare that a doe could get in the Owsla, especially in Efrafa. As does were inferior by Woundwort's standard, they were only used to breed kittens, dig holes to expanding the warren, and if they were extremely lucky, they could learn how herbs work and learn a very little medicine. But, somehow, Bell had beaten up any buck who had challenged her to a fight, other than the General, of course. But, luckily, she had won a spot on the Owsla. She held a very low rank, but was still a part.

"What is the point of searching for them, especially in this kind of weather?!" The scared buck continued, ignoring the comment from Bell. His mind was only focused on trying to get out of this situation before more of them disappeared.

"We already lost Copper, Flax, and Leo! How many more do we have to lose?" Jack asked his Captain as he backed away from the fallen tree to join the others and discuss what to do next.

"I want to go home," Comet sighed, watching one of the thousands of raindrops fall off a nearby branch, landing in an oversized puddle.

"Of course you do! Everything revolves around you!" Jack snarled, getting fed up with Comet's whining.

"Leave him alone, Jack. He's just scared!" Bell snapped, defending the now quivering Comet.

"All right, all right!" Moss shouted, getting fed up with the all the arguing, not to mention the fact that his head was already hurting from the intense heat coming from inside him.

"Let's go back to Efrafa," he sighed, knowing that if he returned back to Woundwort with only bad news that he would probably be put out to work with the slaves for a day. His rank didn't mean anything when it came to punishments from the General for failures.

"Everyone stay close together!"

Moss took the lead and began to walk away from the fallen tree with his three warriors in tow, trying to keep an eye out for anything that looked familiar. But, sadly, in this rain, he could barely see anything in front of his own nose.

As the Captain continued, he saw that his vision was beginning to blur a little. But it wasn't from the rain. To him, it felt like his body was being cooked from the inside. It was possible that he was getting sick from being out in this cold weather, and his already soaked fur wasn't making it any easier.

"No... No. You're not... You're not sick," Moss thought as he began shaking his head from side to side, getting his full vision back. He was trying to ignore the feeling, because if you got sick in Efrafa, Woundwort would force you out to prevent any disease from spreading.

"Why don't these outsiders just show themselves?!" Bell shouted out of sheer anger. She hadn't been paying attention, and had accidentally fallen into an oversized puddle. Spitting out the nasty, grey water, she continued ranting.

"I mean they're all evil anyway, denying Woundwort!" Bell continued her rant, but most of the members in Efrafa just ignored her. She always talked like this, thinking Woundwort was some kind of God, and that he was fighting for good, which is one of the reasons she could never keep a mate and bear kittens of her own.

"You know, Bell, Hazel and his outsiders aren't all that bad," Moss replied, mostly to try and shut her up. However, he quickly clamped his mouth shut, realizing what he had just said. But it was too late, the very suspicious message was sent.

Immediately, Moss could feel that all three of them had begun staring directly him, forcing the group to stop and wait in the freezing rain.

Captain Moss... What do you mean, they aren't...bad?" Jack asked as he began to advance on his comrade, beginning to put himself in a fighting stance as if he were actually going to attack the Captain of Owsla.

"Sir... Have you... Have you met them?" Comet continued, acting as backup for Jack as the duo began to advance on the Captain.

Moss didn't turn around to face them, as he was trying to find a way out. But he saw no real opportunity, because if he tried to fight back, he would surely lose. It was a three to one fight, leaving him at a disadvantage. Then again, he could try to just run away. It would be easy to lose the three Owsla members in this storm. But, surely, he would just get lost himself, winding up dead. After all, he wouldn't be able to return to Efrafa, and he didn't know where Watership Down was to ask for their help.

Just before his two accusers could start attacking him, Bell suddenly jumped in the way. She was trying to save his life… But her method of doing so wasn't the world's greatest.

"Yes! Yes, we have... We have both met the outsiders...in, um... In a battle!" she lied, winking at her Captain as he turned around to see the two advancing rabbits. But, sadly, it wasn't working, and Jack and Comet were still getting closer.

"You're lying!" Jack shouted, baring his teeth.

"We should kill you both right now, traitors!" he continued, causing Bell to get into her own fighting position, willing to try and defend her Captain.

It seemed lying wasn't going to work, and Moss was just too weak to really put up a fight. But it was still nice knowing that someone he barely knew would help him. But then, Moss suddenly realized that he was looking over the most important detail about himself... He was a Captain in the Owsla, and these soldiers had no right making accusations about him, let alone a right to be threatening to kill him.

Moss suddenly started to laugh, confusing the others.

"Why are you laughing...? Stop...stop that!" Comet demanded. But his words fell on deaf ears as Moss continued laughing.

"You two seem to be forgetting something! I am a Captain! I am your Captain!" Moss replied sternly. He had stopped laughing, and had begun to stare at his two accusers.

"Do you remember what happens when you threaten a Captain of Owsla?" Moss asked, waiting for their response.

"You...you... You're killed by General Woundwort himself!" Comet gulped, finally realizing where he and his friend stood in this argument.

Silence fell over them. The only type of noise that could be heard was the light dripping of rain. Luckily, it had begun to ease up enough for them to see each other better, and actually see the way ahead.

"For all I know, my soldiers have become insubordinate and are talking of rebelling against General Woundwort," Moss said.

"Well, what do you two have to say for yourselves?" he asked, leaving the two other rabbits speechless, until Comet suddenly spoke.

"It was Jack's fault!" Comet blurted, pointing his paw directly at the other buck, and immediately turning against his friend, who in return began arguing that it was the weather's fault and he wasn't thinking straight. The arguing would probably have lasted for a few hours if Bell hadn't gotten in between the bucks.

"Come on, enough arguing! Look, the weather has cleared a little! It's enough for us to try and find our way back!" the doe shouted, causing the two arguing bucks to stop fighting.

Immediately, they began nodding their heads and waited for their Captain to take the lead again.

As Moss began to lead his group in what he hoped was the direction of Efrafa, he felt himself stumble over his own paws a little, but he quickly recovered. Sadly, it was true. Moss was getting sick from being out in the cold rain. But, maybe, he could prevent it from getting worse if only he could get home quickly.

Bell had caught up with Moss and begun walking next to him. Something was gnawing at her. Actually, something was gnawing at both of them.

"Bell, why did you lie for me back there?" Moss asked quietly, so that Jack and Comet couldn't eavesdrop on their conversation.

"You were outnumbered, and thus they could have easily killed you, Bell!"

"Wait, why am I so concerned for her?" Moss thought. At the moment, he was feeling something strange with his emotions, and it wasn't because of his sickness. It almost felt like love… But he only felt like that when he was around a certain doe, and that had been a long time ago.

"Honestly... I don't know," she answered, glancing back over her shoulder, just in case the other two were trying to listen in on them

"Wait... Am I developing a... crush... on this soldier?" Moss slowly realized it was true. There was just something different about her, something different than any of the other does in the warren that the Captain liked. And yet, there was still something else about her that he couldn't figure out.

"I guess I wasn't thinking," Bell continued, interrupting Moss's train of thought.

"Well, you're not thinking saved my life, and I do thank you for that," Moss replied. But, sadly, he wasn't let off the hook that easily.

"You're welcome, but when we get back, you've got some explaining to do," she demanded.

Moss thought this was just a joke, but when he glanced back, Bell was dead serious. Actually, it was more of a scary serious.

"Alright... Fair enough," he sighed, causing the doe's face to lighten up into a small smile.

"Great… What happens if she tells Woundwort everything?!" he thought. Now he had to try to find an excuse he could give her, or any type of lie. But his head was hurting way too much to think more on the subject. He would have to deal with it when it came up later.

After his little discussion, he could feel his throat get rather itchy and it was soon followed with a slight cough. After this, he started to quicken his pace, leaving Bell behind with Jack and Comet. His running soon turned into a sprint through the nasty terrain, trying to follow the barely recognizable path. But, sadly for him, the rain had begun to pick up, putting them back to their blinding state and losing the way back.

"No! No!" Moss thought, becoming angry that his salvation had been ripped right out of his paws. He stopped thinking of ways to find the path again and started to run in a random direction, not knowing if it held the way home, or just another deadly obstacle.

His group was now starting to lag even further behind. Moss had become unpredictable, running in a straight direction, then darting in a new one because of a sudden obstacle that had appeared out of the rain.

As the group continued, it seemed that Lord Frith was still against them, as they had run into another obstacle. They had stumbled upon a highly flooded area in the forest.

A tree had been ripped out of the ground, acting as a dam and keeping all the rain in one place, forcing Moss to stop and take a breath as his group gathered around him.

"Great..." Comet sighed. He looked towards Moss, seeing if he had any ideas of getting through the water. Bell had immediately tested the water by sticking her paw in. Her paw got stuck a little because of the excess amount of mud on the bottom. But with a little force, she was able to free it.

"The only way through is the way we came, unless you want to try and go through the thick bushes over there," Bell said, pointing towards the far right side of the tree. This area wasn't covered in water, but it held very clumped and rather tall bushes, which acted as a wall against them.

"Well, I guess we could do Bell's id..." Jack suddenly stopped talking, feeling something large and cold touching him. The rest of the group glanced at him, only to find a horrifying sight.

Only two large paws could be seen because of the rain. And yet, whatever it was, its claws has extended and latched around Jack's chest. He looked down slowly, then glanced back up at the group with a pleading face. But before anyone could grab him, or at the very least help, he was yanked into the blinding rain, followed by a loud and disturbing scream with the word "fox."

Immediately, Comet forgot all of his training and jumped into the water, trying his best to get away before the creature could get another chance to attack. But his escape process was slowed, because with each step he took, his paws began to stick to the mud. His panicking state wasn't helping much either.

"Help! Help me! Captain Moss… Bell… Anyone!" Comet pleaded as the mud started to pull him down under the water. In fact, the water was acting as quicksand, and of course he was still making matters worse with all of his struggling. The muddy water began to close in over his mouth. If he wasn't helped in a minute or two, he would be pulled directly under and would drown.

"Come on!" Bell shouted.

She grabbed Moss by his right paw and began pulling him towards the very tall bushes, leaving poor Comet to his losing battle with the water. They didn't even try to help Jack with the fox.

"Wait! What about Comet... And Jack!?" Moss shouted. Bell ignored him as they continued towards the bushes. Sadly, it was just a little too tall for them to jump over. But, luckily, it was loose enough for them to start pushing through the bottom, as most of the roots had already been ripped out by the wind.

As they continued crawling through, they could still hear Comet's pleading voice. But soon his shouting was drowned out because of the heavy rain, which could be heard all around them. But at the very least, it was drier under the bush than being outside.

"Come on! Where is the exit to this stupid thing?!" Bell hissed as she continued to move forward with Moss on her tail, constantly glancing back to see if the fox was trying to follow them through. It seemed as though they were in the clear.

Finally they had a chance to take a small break. Lucky for them, they had come across a small clearing directly in the middle of the bushes, which surrounded them. Moss had immediately collapsed to the floor once they stopped, closing his eyes as he tried to catch his breath. His sickness wasn't making it easy to run.

Bell noticed him on the ground and rushed to his side, trying to get him back to his feet, just in case if the fox showed up and they needed to move, yet it was near impossible for her to move him because of his size.

"Come on Moss, you have to get up!" she pleaded, continuing to try to move him. But it was no use. Moss had actually been so tired that he fell unconscious the minute he hit the ground.

"Fine... I guess we can rest here for a little," Bell sighed, giving up on moving him. But once she had lain down, she noticed that Moss was shaking terribly from being drenched in water, so she decided to cuddle up next to him and try to warm his very cold body.

As she was trying to think of a way out of this situation, she was constantly getting side-tracked, because Moss would begin to shake for at least half a minute, and then he would calm back down, but only for a short time, before it would all begin again.

"Oh, for Frith's sake, will you stop shaking?!" Bell thought, getting angry with his uncontrollable movement. Having had enough of this, she had gotten up to her feet and tried to hold her captain still. But of course, that didn't help.

She sighed, giving up on trying to stop him from thrashing, figuring it was best to try and conserve her energy, just in case that nasty fox would show up. She was willing to defend Moss at any cost, even if it meant dying for him.

"You always were persistent, weren't you?" Bell asked, not getting any type of response from Moss. But that wasn't much of a surprise.

"And yet you still don't remember me..." she thought sadly, pulling down her right ear and given it a lick.

"Then again... Maybe you aren't him... Maybe I am just losing it."

"Yep, I am definitely crazy. I mean, I am talking to myself here..." the doe sighed.

She began to stare down at Moss, who had begun to shake again. But this time, his shaking had a light cough mixed in.

"Don't worry, Captain. You'll be ok," she said, mostly to try and reassure herself. She lay back down next to the sick Captain, but still watched the opening they had made for any danger.

After Bell had waited for what seemed like hours, Moss finally began to open his eyes once again, only to see that Bell's back was turned away from him. She was still watching out for any danger, and it also looked like she was in deep thought about something.

"Why is she helping me like this?" Moss whispered, as he got back up to his feet, trying not to disturb her.

"She could have left by now, saving her own skin! I mean, the fox could kill her or I could easily get her sick, and then we both would die," Moss had begun to rub his chin curiously, but was also trying terribly hard not to cough.

"Wait a minute... Now I know why she looked so familiar! No wonder I felt a connection before," he concluded, finally putting all of the pieces together.

With his full vision back, he could see the small burn scar across her right ear. Mixing with her bright red fur, it could easily blend in and no one would notice its existence.

In reality, her name wasn't Bell. It was really Bliss, and if his memory served him well, they used to live together. But that was not in Efrafa, but in a small manmade structure, which a friendly mouse had told him was called a barn.

When Moss was just barely growing into his teen years, his mother, father and sister had died in a badger attack, leaving him alone to fend for himself. But, luckily, he had come across the barn and the occupants had let him stay. There was even another group of rabbits living inside, and they had sort of adopted him.

Soon he had become very fond of one of their daughters. She was called Bliss, and she was the same height as Moss, but with gorgeous emerald colored eyes and pure red fur. Of course, before long he had developed a crush on her. Everyday, Moss would try and play with her, either at Tail Tag or Bobstones. But in reality, it was just a plan to try and talk to her and see if they had anything in common. But she would usually deny the request, leaving him to mumble to himself or to talk with the mice.

What he didn't know was that Bliss was actually forbidden to date or even to speak to Moss. Her parents were very protective of their daughter, as her brother had died at birth. The two would always keep an eye on her, making sure that if she wanted to go outside the barn to explore, she had to take one of them, or she didn't get to go at all.

Fate had different plans for Moss, though. One day, the barn caught on fire because of a careless man, who had left a burning lamp on a high shelf and didn't stabilize it properly. It toppled over, smashing into the very flammable hay that lay below. As chaos spread through the burning building, Moss was fortunate enough to be the very first to get outside. But soon, as he watched the other inhabitants fleeing the building, he started to realized that Bliss and her parents hadn't come out yet.

Without thinking, he had charged back into the burning building, only to be blinded for a few seconds by the smoke. Once he was able to see again, he had begun calling out Bliss's name. But either the sound of the fire was too loud, blocking out any communication, or they had died without his knowledge.

At the moment, it had seemed hopeless, because Moss could barely see anything. The heat was becoming unbearable, but somehow, he was still continuing with his search. He had begun to search under the rubble to see if maybe she was trapped somewhere, and that was why he couldn't get a response.

All of sudden, one of the support beams from the roof had given way from the fire. It would have fallen right on top of Moss, killing him. But, luckily, the very edge of it had landed on top of a nearby barrel and given him enough to time to run out of the way just before the barrel had broken, letting the beam smash into the ground, and blocking any way backwards with a wall of fire.

"Great!" Moss shouted in frustration. It was soon followed with a rough cough. If he didn't get out soon, then he would most likely pass out from the lack of oxygen, before being burned alive.

As he continued with his search, he could feel that he might pass out any second from all the smoke. But somehow, he was still pushing himself to find Bliss and her parents and hopefully to save them. That is, until he tripped on something and fell face first on the ground.

Moss got back up to try and continue with his search for the lost rabbits, but something made him glance down to see what had tripped him. It was actually Bliss, but from the looks of it, she had passed out from lack of oxygen and her right ear was trapped by a small piece of metal. With a little force, he could easily move it.

He let out a large sigh of relief. At least she wasn't dead. But they would both be crushed if he didn't act fast, so he rushed over to see if he could move the metal piece. As he grabbed onto it, it burned his paws, and he immediately pulled them back to wave them back and forth to try and cool them.

His paw waving was interrupted by another large smashing noise. Turns out it was another burning beam breaking off from the roof. But this one had crashed down right above Bliss. It had gotten stuck above her instead of killing her, but if he didn't act fast, then she would die.

Realizing he had no more time, Moss ignored how hot the metal was, and began to try and lift it. As soon as he touched it, it began to sear into his paws again. Yet with a large grunting noise, he was able to lift the metal off of Bliss's ear. It was badly scared, but the burning beam above them would give way at any moment. He grabbed her, and was able to lift her on to his back.

After that, the memory was a little faded, and the only thing he could remember was running into the nearby woods, seeing bright red and blue flashing, with men run all around the burning building. No one spotted them, and after some sprinting through the woods, he finally came to a small stream.

Once Moss knew they were safe from both the fire and the men, he laid down Bliss to dunk his paws into the cold water. Of course, it stung a little, but it looked like he was going to be okay. As for Bliss, she was still breathing, so he had tried to wake her. Yet she didn't give any type of response, and her right ear was in pretty bad shape.

After that, his mind went completely blank for some reason. He couldn't remember how the two of them had gotten separated from each other, and especially how she had ended up in Efrafa. But it didn't matter, because the doe had noticed that he wasn't on the ground anymore.

"Thank Frith you're awake!" she told him, and out of her excitement, she gave him a hug. However, she soon released him and had turned away from the Captain, blushing horribly.

"I am sorry, sir," she apologized, trying to avoid direct eye contact.

"No, no, it's alright," he replied with a light smile, trying to get her to face him. But for some reason, she didn't even throw a glance his way.

"Can I ask you something?"

She was still silent. Not even a yes or no was thrown his way, so Moss continued anyway.

"Your name isn't Bell... is it?" Even though she wasn't facing him, he could tell that her eyes went wide for a second. For some reason she decided to turn around to look at him with a smile on her face.

"No, Moss. It's really Bliss, the one you saved from the fire," she answered.

"Wait... How did you know I saved you?" he asked. After all, when he had rescued her, she has been unconscious. But instead of getting an instant response, she walked up to him, putting her nose right in front of his.

"Because you are the only buck stupid enough to try!" Bliss replied. Without warning, she kissed Moss right on the lips. His eyes began to widen, but soon closed to try and savor the moment. It was as if he could feel the passion of it, but, sadly, it had to end, and once it was over, Bliss didn't say anything, but instead stared directly into his eyes.

He was speechless. Ever since he had met Bliss, there was nothing more he wanted to do but kiss her, and someday to raise a family with her. But now that he had kissed her, it felt like there was a hidden danger in this love. His train of thought was soon derailed, because he noticed that he was just standing there and it was becoming rather awkward.

"Say something, you idiot! You're just staring at her!" he thought, blinking his eyes to see if this was a fantasy. But it wasn't. It was real, and still his mind couldn't come up with any words, until he realized one big thing.

"Wait a minute... You kissed me?!" Moss shouted, scaring Bliss. She was expecting something a little more heartwarming, and definitely had not expected to be yelled at.

"Um...I think so," she chuckled, trying to lighten his mood with a joke. However, it didn't look like he was really in the mood for that. It was as if he was actually mad at her.

"No... No, that's really... That's really bad!"

He had begun pacing around in circles, trying to think. But soon, he could feel his sickness coming back, as if it were living dormant in his system. It returned as if it was actually mocking him.

"I thought you..." she tried to continue, but Moss interrupted her.

"No! You don't understand... You shouldn't have kissed me!" Moss explained. But it was actually doing more damage than good, and he could see Bliss's expression drop to a saddened state.

"Well... I am so sorry that I had... I had... feelings for you, Moss," she replied sadly, turning away from him and walking towards the direction of the hole they had made coming in.

"No... Wait... Bliss!"

She continued walking away, ignoring him and his hurtful words. Moss didn't know it, but she was, in fact, crying, letting her tears drip onto the ground.

"Bliss... I did..." His words were cut short, as his eyelids suddenly became rather heavy, and the world around him soon turned to blackness. Somehow, he had fallen unconscious mid sentence. But it was a lot worse than he had thought, and his sickness was turning into something even worse.

Bliss was standing in the entrance, and was about to take off to find her way back to Efrafa. But once she noticed Moss's sudden drop in voice, she turned to find him lying on the ground. He was breathing, but he was looking worse than before. If he wasn't helped soon, then he might just die.

"Serves you right...jerk!" she thought, letting her anger take control and turning to leave. But as she was about to start walking away, something mysterious was preventing her from taking another step without him.

"Come on... You saw him! He's a jerk!" Bliss shouted. She began to stare up in the direction of the sky, as if she was talking to Lord Firth himself.

After a little time had passed with no response, she began to vent out her anger by running back and forth in her mind, trying to think over what would be the right thing to do. Luckily for Moss, she finally came to a good conclusion.

"He did save my life at the barn... So, I guess that means I owe him," she sighed.

With nothing else stopping her, she walked over to the large captain and tried to lift him and carry him back to Efrafa. But he was just too big. She tried again, but still came up with the same results. She just wasn't strong enough, which was odd, because she could usually beat up other bucks over half Moss's size.

"I don't understand! Why I am so weak...?" Bliss though. She soon figured out why, as she let out a large, nasty cough. She was getting sick like Moss, and it was cutting her strength in half.

"Great. Just great... No wonder you were upset about the kiss."

She began trying to think of how she could get herself and Moss out of this situation, but ran into the same problem-she couldn't just carry him. Luckily, the sound of rain outside the bushes was complete gone, but probably not for long. If she was going back to Efrafa, she had to leave now, or else she might get stuck out in it even longer.

"Hey...wait a minute!" The doe shouted, finally coming up with a perfect plan get herself and Moss out there.

"Stay right here!" she continued. But before putting her plan in motion, she ran over to kiss him again, but this time on the forehead, and giving him a little nod, as if he was watching her.

With that done, Bliss had soon darted out the way they came through. She was leaving Moss behind, but if this was to work she had to act fast. Bliss put all of her strength into her hind legs, trying to run as fast as possible, and soon came out of the large bushes to see that the rain had indeed stopped, but the clouds still lingered overhead, threatening to start up again.

"All right, I can't stop anything!" Bliss thought, trying to ignore the sick feeling in her head, which was now making its way towards her stomach.

As she continued through, she could clearly see the haunting quicksand-water that had most likely killed Comet. But still there was time to dwell on that.

Without the rain blocking her eyes like before, she could finally make out her surroundings, especially the place where there was a large opening in the side of a dirt mound. Bliss could smell fresh blood inside the opening. This was how the fox had snuck up on them and killed Jack. They must have run right in front of it, and, because of the rain, its scent was completely masked.

She was starting to get a little teary for her fallen comrades. Even if they were annoying at times, they were a little bit like family. Still, truth be told, while it was too late for them, she could still hopefully save Moss before he succumbed to his sickness.

It seemed that Lord Frith was still on her side! The rain hadn't started up again, and as she continued to run, it took less than a minute to make it out of the horrible forest. She came out to see the small bridge, which was still intact even during this storm. However, the two rabbits that would usually guard it were now gone.

"Yes! No one's there!" she exclaimed as she darted across the bridge into Efrafan territory. If there had been guards on the bridge, they might have stopped her and she would be forced to leave due to her sickness, so she had to make sure that no one would see her.

The warren soon came into view. It looked like everyone was inside, sheltering from the bad weather, other than the occasional guards that came out to do a short scan of the perimeter, but then immediately went back inside. There was really no worry of being attacked, since they had so many strong warriors.

Finally, Bliss slowly made her way inside, trying to avoid any guards that might stop her. She realized that in her current state she was too weak to move Moss, but maybe Captain Campion could help her. Of course, first she had to find him.

As she continued, dodging and searching for Campion, she couldn't help but overhear a conversation going in General Woundwort's personal burrow. He was talking to Vervain about some rabbit called Molly, who was under interrogation. This was odd, because Bliss hadn't seen any new prisoners recently. But maybe they had acquired this rabbit when she was gone.

Still, she couldn't worry about it right now. At the moment, she needed to find Captain Campion before time ran out. Lucky for her, he was asleep in his burrow, but soon woke up when she pushed on his shoulder with her paws.

"Oh, hello, Bell. Is there something you need?" Campion yawned, giving her a light smile but seeming a little annoyed that she had woken him up.

"I need your help!" she replied hastily, and before Campion could even give a response, she was already trying to push him out of the burrow, which wasn't going very well, considering his size.

"Whoa, whoa! What's going on?" he asked as he got to his feet and began walking the way she was pushing. It was obvious that this was an emergency.

"It's Moss! He..." she tried to explain, but was instantly interrupted by Campion.

"What about Moss?! Where is he?"

"There's no time to explain, just come on!" Bliss shouted. She had stopped trying to push him, but instead darted with incredible speed outside the burrow. With no other choice, Captain Campion had to follow her but immediately got worried. She wasn't stopping at any other burrow. Instead, she was leading him outside, into the storm.

Sadly for them, once they made it outside, they noticed that the rain had begun to pick up again. But, luckily, it was just barely drizzling. However, Bliss knew that it would soon turn back into a horrible blinding state.

Immediately, she started to sprint towards the bridge, with Campion right behind. Actually, he was beating her in the run, but was forced to stay alongside her, even though he wanted to get there immediately, He, Larch and Moss had been best friends for a while now, and Campion didn't want to imagine a world without one of them.

"Bell, what is going on!?" he demanded, running across the bridge with her. They soon made their way into the forest. But now, the rain was getting worse, and the wind was starting to pick up, blowing chills down his spine.

"He's sick, Captain Campion! He's very, very sick!" she shouted, trying to communicate over the increasing wind.

"That's not good, especially in this kind of weather," Campion thought as he glanced around just to see a tree come crashing down. Luckily, it wasn't anywhere near them.

At first, it looked like Bliss had failed saving Moss. She was back to her blinded state, as the rain had stopped drizzling and had turned back into the full blown storm which had gotten the original group lost. Then, to her annoyance and yet, surprise, she accidentally stepped into water, which was acting as quicksand in front of a fallen tree. She had found the same spot where Moss was left, but the scenery had changed as the water had risen, and the wall of bushes that had been on the side was no longer there.

It seems that the bushes had been ripped out of the ground. As the roots were already damaged when Moss and Bliss had run through to escape the fox, this was not a big surprise, but now with the heavy winds blowing, it looked like it had finally finished them off.

"Help me find him!" Bliss shouted, running over to the empty land. But because of the rain, it was hard to tell where he was to try and help.

The worst part of it was that Moss was probably still unconscious and without shelter. He might be dead. But nevertheless, the two of them started to search for the Captain, while simultaneously trying to stay close together.

"I don't see him!" Campion yelled as he continued to scan the ground, but with no good luck.

"Keep looking!" Bliss replied, trying not to give up hope, although the situation was looking really bad.

At this rate, the wind was picking up so much speed that it might have been able to toss them into the air, and they would actually fly in a random direction… But it would probably kill them first before they landed, so they would have had to have given up had they not finally had a stroke of good luck.

"I found him!" Bliss shouted with excitement. Luckily and very ironic, she had accidentally tripped over Moss's large body. Even greater news was that he was somehow still breathing which meant that he hadn't succumbed to his sickness.

"Here, put him on my back!" Campion replied, lowering himself next to the unconscious rabbit, while Bliss started to drag him onto the large Captain. The rain and wind weren't making it any easier for the two, but finally after a little struggle they did it. Now all they had to do was get back to Efrafa in one piece.

"All right, I think he's on. Let's get out of here!" the doe shouted to Campion as the two began running with Campion in front. Bliss was afraid that if she led, then they might get even more lost, because at the moment her vision was blurring again. But it was not from the rain-her sickness was getting worse, and it was becoming very hard to ignore the feeling.

Without wasting time, the two continued with their running. But neither of them noticed that a small branch from a nearby tree was under too much pressure from the strong winds. Finally, it had completely torn away. Even worse, it somehow smacked the back of Campion's head, causing him to topple over head first onto the ground and throwing Moss off of his back. The other buck landed in front of him.

Campion's head was now spinning, and he could definitely feel it getting rather wet. That was probably from the blood, which was in fact pouring out. Somehow, for him, time was slowing down. He could see that Bliss was standing in front of him, yelling something to him, but all he could hear was a ringing noise in his ears. Soon, his blinking became relatively slow.

Campion tried his best to stand back up, but soon collapsed back to the ground. In a matter of seconds, he found himself getting rather tired. Sadly for him, blackness was starting to swallow him up, and he was falling unconscious from the hard blow to the head, leaving Bliss all alone to try and save them both.


	15. Story Update!

Alright well this is just an update for everyone and this story.

Just in case you are wondering, i will not be stopping this series until i am finished!

Since school has finally calmed down i am going to try and send the next chapter's to the editor keeralie Starflight at least every week, two at the max. Also i will am going to increasing how many pages i do from 10 to 20 so that's at least 4,000 to 8,000 words a chapter because I am just so sick and tired of updating this every 3 months, that stops now!

Also don't forget to thank keeralie Starflight, without her this story wouldn't even be alive right now and thank you everyone that reads this!

~Fivers11


	16. Story Update 2! Sorry

I don't really know what to say, the only thing that comes to mind is that I am very sorry to my readers that I had gone inactive for at least 7 months, school had started back up and now that I am in College I have to focus on that but i don't want to use that as an excuse! I thought that new update would help me keep the story alive and make it even longer but i was wrong.

The fact remains that i had no idea after i posted that update that my editor Keeralie Starflight and friend would stop messaging me but that's understandable because she has a life to, can't be chained to one thing. I guess when I stopped hearing from her I lost a lot of motivation to keep the story updating and it didn't i was very afraid that my grammar and punctuation would take over it because it's usually pretty bad. Now i was in the middle of starting the next Chapter but I did stop about 2 pages in because at that time i had lost contact.

Now what does this update tell you:

1\. I will not be giving up on this story because I wish to finish it with at least three other sequels.

2\. I will not be getting a new Editor, I refuse because she was here at the very beginning, even convince me to start the story and I will finish it with her. Now she probably won't get back to me for a while or even ever but I will be continue it regardless and hopefully one day she will return so we can finish it together.

3\. Since I probably won't have an awesome Editor for a while, please bare with me that my grammar and punctuation will be bad and all over the place but i don't want this story to turn into a halfway done and forgotten one but hopefully i can still some good in it.

4\. I will be trying to post a new chapter soon but I have to do a timeline for my story and make sure everything is lining up correctly because I feel like I am making too many different timelines because i wanted to go outside of the box but i had realized i went to far. If anything their will be updates to regular chapters because i need to fix a lot and pull myself back in.

Summing all that up i will not give up on this story and hopefully i post a new chapter at very least 1-2 weeks, depending on how it goes.

Thank you all who stayed even through my inactivity.

~Fivers11


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